


The Rubber Band Theory

by Selene_Eleganza



Series: SNAP! (The Rubber Band Theory) [1]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Big Hero 6: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Co-Dependency, ESP, Empath, Empathy, Follows the movie, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, LITERALLY, Tadashi Hamada Lives, Tadashi is super protective and it shows, Telekinesis, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy, Until it Doesn't, because I said so, just a smidge, mostly - Freeform, our boys have powers in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:02:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24562807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selene_Eleganza/pseuds/Selene_Eleganza
Summary: Some say that the mind is like a rubber band; it stretches and grows with use, never returning to the state it began in, and like a rubber band, it can grow brittle and hard with disuse.People tell stories of individuals with extraordinary abilities, abilities that extend with the use of their minds: Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Cyrokinesis, Pathokinesis, Telepathy, and any number of other abilities. But every story has a grain of truth, doesn’t it?People have long forgotten that little grain of truth; there were some people who truly possessed abilities of those calibers. But when you leave a rubber band alone for too long, it shrinks and snaps easily. And like the forgotten truth, the rubber band was lost in time.Until now.
Relationships: Baymax & Hiro Hamada & Tadashi Hamada, Fred | Fredzilla & Wasabi-No Ginger & Hiro Hamada & Tadashi Hamada & Honey Lemon & Gogo Tomago, Hiro Hamada & Tadashi Hamada
Series: SNAP! (The Rubber Band Theory) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775395
Comments: 20
Kudos: 126





	1. Together

**Author's Note:**

> This is honest-to-god my first completed multi-chapter fic. Any feedback is welcome, I just ask you be kind! If you think something isn't working, tell me, but soft-like. I am smol. Kudos appreciated, comments more than welcome. Anything to help me grow!

Tadashi smiled down at Hiro, that little proud almost-smirk that shone through when Hiro was melting his heart from the inside. 

And then the alarms rang. 

And then they ran.

The fire raged from within, smoke streaming from the windows. The screeching of the klaxons mingled with the screams of the fleeing people, mixing to form a cacophony of sound that practically dripped with anxiety. Tadashi pushed the impressions down, rushing forward to catch one of the stumbling people.

“Are you okay?” He grabbed her by the elbows, steadying her as she coughed.

“Yeah, I’m okay. But Professor Callaghan is still in there!” She pointed towards the exhibition hall before rushing past them. Tadashi ran closer.

A small hand caught his elbow, pulling him back. “Tadashi, no!”

He turned to see Hiro looking at him with wide, pleading eyes. He was radiating the same panic that everyone else was. Tadashi watched him for a moment, at war with himself about what to do. Hiro’s face changed. ‘ _Please,’_ it begged, desperate.

Tadashi turned back towards the building, breathing hard. He peered through the glass, trying to spot Professor Callaghan. The glass had been opaque to begin with, and the smoke did it no favors. He spun back to Hiro with a new urgency.

“Callaghan’s in there,” he said, begging his little brother to understand. “Someone has to help.” He pulled his arm from Hiro’s grip and charged up the stairs.  
  
  
  


Tadashi pulled free and Hiro started panting, hyperventilating. His brother wasn’t halfway up the stairs before his hat flew off, landing at Hiro’s feet. ‘ _No, no, no, no, no no no! Tadashi, NO!’_

Hiro screamed, throwing his hands out and desperately yanking back. ‘ _No, no, no I will NOT LOSE YOU TOO!’_

Hiro gasped in pain as Tadashi was thrown back. He soared over the stairs and landed hard a few feet away from him. Tadashi yelped in surprise and pain, but Hiro didn’t hear him. His head felt like it was splitting. Everything hurt. He groaned, putting his head in his hands, trying desperately to numb the pain. He felt his knees buckle, but he didn’t feel himself hit the ground. He curled up into a ball, begging the world to _please_ , make it _stop_. He was vaguely aware of Tadashi’s voice, but he couldn’t really hear it. He felt the building explode, the force of it rattling every bone in his body. All it did was make the pain _worse_. Every second was an eternity of pain.

After a few more eternities the pain began to ease. He started to be able to feel again: slow circles on his back and wetness on his face. The pain lessened in favor of peace, and he slowly started to slip away.

  
  
  
  


Tadashi was just over halfway up the stairs when suddenly he _wasn’t_. His forward momentum turned into backwards momentum, and his feet left the ground. He let out a startled yelp as he flew over the stairs, landing hard on his back on the bricks, almost where he started. He glanced around, trying to see what had pulled him back. He caught sight of Hiro and froze. His head was in his hands, his face scrunched up in extreme pain. He was whimpering and whining, trying to keep his balance through the pain. 

Tadashi surged forward from the brick, catching his little brother as he fell. He lowered him quickly into his arms, panicking and calling his name. Hiro was in so much _pain_ , why, why, _why?_

Before he had much of a chance to figure it out, the building exploded. Tadashi flinched, trying to cover Hiro’s small body with his own. When no shrapnel came he blinked in surprise, unwrapping himself from his brother. The air rippled between them and the exhibition hall. Tadashi blinked to clear his vision. The air still rippled. He glanced around frantically, but it was only the air between them and the building that looked strange. There were spiderweb cracks in it, lines that littered the surface like it had been impacted.

Tadashi blinked, looking down at the ground in front of them. It was littered with broken glass, pieces of metal, and chunks of stone. But there was no debris between the rippling air and the Hamada brothers.

Hiro whimpered and the strange ripple faded away. Tadashi turned back to his little brother, holding him tighter. He could feel Hiro’s pain, worse than before. “Hiro, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” He started rubbing Hiro’s back in slow circles. It always worked when Hiro had nightmares, and Tadashi prayed it’d help now. “I’m here, little brother, I got you. It’s okay.”

Hiro began to relax a little, his body slowly unwinding whatever tight coil that he’d put himself in. As Hiro relaxed, Tadashi heard a bunch of debris start to hit the ground. Snapping his head up, he realized that they were _floating_ . Stone, glass, metal, they were all hovering and shaking. They fell one by one as Hiro relaxed, Tadashi’s hat hitting the bricks by his side. He took a shuddering breath, looking down at his little brother in fear. _Hiro_ was the one that made the debris float. _He_ pulled Tadashi away from the building. _And he was in pain_ . Whatever he had done was _hurting_ him, he realized. And Tadashi didn’t feel too hot either. His body ached all over from his trip to the bricks and he had a small headache coming on.

His mind came to a hard stop. He had a headache. They _both_ did. He shoved the thought away. He’d have time to deal with it later. Hiro came first.

A small group of people rounded the corner and Tadashi instinctively drew Hiro closer. The air between the brothers and the paramedics shimmered for a moment before Tadashi realized what was happening. The rippling effect disappeared instantly. If Tadashi was lucky, they’d think it was a trick of the light. Tadashi quickly brought his hand into the sleeve of his blazer, sweeping it behind him to disturb the perfect line of shrapnel.

“Are you two alright?” The first medic asked, getting down on her knees in front of them. Firefighters rushed past, already hefting their hoses to put the fire down. She reached carefully for Hiro, and Tadashi hesitated before letting her examine him. 

“I- I think so, but when the building blew…” Tadashi trailed off. He wasn’t good at lying, but what could he say? The explosion seemed to hurt Hiro, but how could he just explain that he’d collapsed because he’d… No. They were not having that conversation. 

She tutted absentmindedly to herself. She scanned him for obvious injuries before looking back up at Tadashi. “Let’s get you two to an ambulance, we need to check you out.”

Tadashi pulled Hiro back into his arms, his body spiking with pain as he got up. He felt Hiro tense again and quickly started to hum quietly. Another paramedic noticed his grimace and moved closer. “Whoah, steady. Do you need me to take him?”

“No,” Tadashi said, gritting it out harder than he’d meant to. He took a small breath and tried again. “No, I’m okay. I just… I fell when the building blew, shielding him. I’ve got him.”

The paramedics exchanged a glance, but Tadashi ignored it, going back to humming softly. He was pretty sure that they couldn’t hear it, but he knew that Hiro could feel it. They made it quickly to the ambulance. Tadashi sat down carefully, cradling his brother protectively in his arms. Seeing that he wasn’t ready to let his brother go yet, the paramedics started with him.

“What’s your name?”

“Tadashi Hamada.”

“Alright, Tadashi, can you tell us what happened?”

Tadashi hesitated. “We were just outside of the building when it blew, at the bottom of the steps. We fell. I tried to take the most of it, but I had to choose between the blast and the ground,” he said quietly. “I don’t know that I did enough.”

The woman put her hands on his shoulders, looking him straight in the eye. “Tadashi, you did the best that you could, alright? This isn’t your fault.”

‘ _But it_ is,’ he thought bitterly. ‘ _He’s in pain because I almost got myself killed.’_

Hiro stirred in his arms. ‘ _’Dashi.’_

Tadashi jerked like he’d been shocked. The other paramedic took the opportunity to scoop Hiro up and set him beside Tadashi in the truck. Tadashi barely noticed, too caught up in the fact that he’d _just heard his brother’s voice in his head_.

“Alright, Tadashi,” the first paramedic began, shining a penlight in his eyes. “What’s your brother’s name?”

Tadashi blinked against the light before remembering what she was doing. “Hiro Hamada.”

“Okay. How old are the two of you?”

“20 and 14.”

“Can you tell me where we are?”

“The SFIT Showcase. The, um, drive in front of the Exhibition Hall.”

She nodded, pocketing the penlight. “We need to check you for more injuries. Can you tell me where you’re hurt?”

Tadashi was quiet for a moment, trying to mentally take stock. “I fell on my back,” he said finally. “I’ve got a little headache and the rest of my body aches, but not much more than that.”

She pursed her lips in thought and nodded. Tadashi glanced over at his brother, feeling a change. Hiro’s eyebrows were furrowed but nothing else seemed to be wrong. Tadashi noticed the zipper on his jacket wasn’t quite following the rules of gravity and he quickly put his hand on Hiro’s head.

“Hey,” he said softly, aware of the paramedics’ attention. “It’s okay, Hiro. We’re okay. We’re safe.” The contact calmed Hiro, and Tadashi could feel how afraid he’d been. ‘ _I’m here, otouto. It’s okay. I’m here.’_

‘ _Don’t leave me, Tadashi.’_ Hiro whimpered quietly and Tadashi felt the worry spike from the paramedics. ‘ _I can’t lose you.’_ Tadashi let out a ragged sigh, burying his fingers in Hiro’s hair.

‘ _I’m never leaving you again, Hiro. So please,’_ he begged silently. ‘ _Please wake up.’_

Hiro stirred a little more. “Tadashi?” His voice was soft, but the fear and uncertainty in it broke Tadashi’s heart. 

“Right here, Hiro.”

Hiro’s head snapped up to look at Tadashi before immediately closing his eyes and bracing his head with a hiss.

The paramedics moved forward in a hurry. “Be careful,” the man began. “You’re hurt. Take it easy.”

Hiro opened his eyes again, watching Tadashi like he was a butterfly about to fly away. Tadashi smiled at him, brushing some of his fluffy hair away from his eyes. ‘ _How’s your head?’_

Hiro blinked at him. “It hurts.”

“What hurts, Hiro?” The other paramedic was at his side in an instant, her eyes skimming for any injuries they might have missed. 

He glanced at Tadashi in confusion. “My head.”

“Okay, Hiro, I’m going to ask you a few questions. What’s your name?”

Hiro looked at her strangely but answered anyway. “Hiro Hamada.”

“And how old are you?”

“14.”

“Do you know where you are?”

Hiro glanced around. “Um, an ambulance?”

“Do you remember how you got here?”

“There was, um, there was a fire,” he started slowly, his face pinched in thought. “And Tadashi… I didn’t want him to get hurt. And then my head hurt.”

The paramedic watched him patiently. “Anything else?”

Tadashi watched Hiro carefully, but he just looked back up at her. “No.”

“Okay, Hiro, do you hurt anywhere else?”

Hiro went to shake his head but winced at the motion. “Just my head.”

“Okay. We’re going to make sure that you and your brother are alright. We may need to take you to the hospital, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there, okay?”

Hiro nodded, letting her shine the light in his eyes. After she was done, he just watched Tadashi. The other paramedic checked Tadashi carefully for any injuries, but he quickly decided that the worst he had were some nasty bruises. As they finished, Tadashi’s phone rang. He fumbled for it, fishing it out of his pocket as quickly as he could.

“Hello?”

“ _Tadashi? Oh, thank god. Are you and Hiro okay?”_

“Yeah, we’re okay, Aunt Cass.” Tadashi glanced at Hiro, who was still watching him carefully. “We’re a little… banged up, but we’re okay.”

“ _What happened? We heard there was a fire…”_ Aunt Cass took a shuddering breath and Tadashi took the chance to jump in.

“Yeah, there was. We got caught outside. We’re okay. We’re alright, Aunt Cass. I’ll have to call you back. The paramedics are still checking us out and they may not want me to drive home tonight. I’ll keep you posted, okay?”

Cass sniffled from the other end of the call. _“Alright. Be safe, you two. Take care of each other.”_

Tadashi’s eyes darted to Hiro. “We will, Aunt Cass. Love you.”

_“I love you too,”_ she said with one final sniffle. The call ended and Tadashi slowly returned the phone to his pocket. He looked up to see Hiro still watching him. He smiled and ruffled Hiro’s hair, but his brother didn’t really react. He just kept watching his face like he was afraid he’d never see it again.

Tadashi’s heart filled with guilt and grief. If Hiro hadn’t stopped him, Tadashi would have died. He knew that without a doubt. ‘ _I’m sorry, Hiro. I shouldn’t have tried to go in. It was stupid.’_

Hiro blinked, his eyes getting a little wider.

_‘If you hadn’t…’_ Tadashi took a shuddering breath. _‘I’m so sorry, Hiro.’_

Hiro blinked at him again. _‘How are you doing that?’_

_‘Same way you are, knucklehead.’_ Tadashi smiled a little before letting his face fall again. _‘Probably the same way that you pulled me away from the building. Do you remember, Hiro?’_

Hiro’s face pinched. _‘You were going to go in there. You were going to die, and… and I didn’t want to lose you too.’_

Tadashi’s eyes stung and he brought Hiro in for a hug, holding him tight against his chest.

_‘I pulled you back and then my head_ hurt. _It hurt so_ bad _, Tadashi. Why? How did I do that? How is this possible? It shouldn’t be possible.’_ Hiro’s silent voice started to grow frantic until Tadashi started rubbing slow circles on his back again.

_‘I don’t know, Hiro. But whatever this is, it saved our lives tonight.’_

Hiro sniffed. _‘Our?’_

_‘You pulled me back, and I… I think I shielded us when the building exploded. If I hadn’t, you and I would be a lot worse off right now.’_ Tadashi pulled out of the hug, holding Hiro at his shoulders to look into his eyes. _‘I don’t know what’s happening, and I don’t know how we’re doing this, but we’re going to figure it out, okay? But we should probably keep it a secret for now.’_

Hiro blinked at him again. _‘Even from Aunt Cass?’_

Tadashi winced. _‘Especially from Aunt Cass. She’ll worry. I don’t want her to worry until we figure out what exactly this is, okay?’_

Hiro tried to nod, wincing halfway through. _‘Okay.’_

Tadashi carefully ruffled his hair, this time getting a small smile in return. He turned to the paramedics and cleared his throat. Now with their full attention, he glanced back down at his brother before looking back up at them. “Are we clear to go, or do you recommend observation?”

The two paramedics conversed quietly for a moment before one turned to them. “You two are free to go. Just be careful, alright? You both may have minor concussions, so take it easy. If either of you see any signs of other injuries or symptoms of a more serious concussion, come to the hospital right away, alright?”

Tadashi squeezed Hiro’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” the other said lightly. Her smile slipped for a moment, and she regarded the brothers seriously. “You two got lucky tonight. Take care, okay?”

“We will,” Hiro said quietly, showing off a small smile of his own.

Tadashi stood up slowly, stretching his limbs to make sure he didn’t hurt them more than he had already. “Come on, Hiro. Let’s go grab the moped and wait for Aunt Cass to come pick us up.” He helped Hiro out of the ambulance and they waved goodbye to the paramedics. They made their way slowly to the moped and Tadashi sent a text to Aunt Cass to tell her where to meet them.

Alone in the parking lot, Tadashi sat heavily on his ride. Hiro watched him before moving to sit next to him, careful not to aggravate his brother’s new bruises.

“Sorry,” he said quietly.

Tadashi blinked in surprise, looking down at his brother in confusion. “Sorry? For what?”

Hiro was looking at his hands. “I hurt you.”

“Hiro,” Tadashi said, shifting in his seat. “If you hadn’t done what you did, I’d have been in that building when it exploded. I’ll take a few bruises if it’s the price I’m paying for being alive.” He threw his arms around his little brother’s shoulders, hugging him tight. “Don’t be sorry for that, Hiro. _I’m_ the one who put myself in that situation. If I had anything to say about it at the time, I’d have _died_ in there, Hiro. All you did was take care of me, just like Aunt Cass wanted you to. Besides,” he said with a smile. “Rule 2: Hamada brothers always look out for each other.”

Hiro sniffed again. “You said… you said you shielded us? How?”

Tadashi recognized the misdirection but accepted it anyway. “I… think I did it twice. The first time, when the exhibition hall exploded, all I wanted was to protect you. I tried to put myself between you and the blast. When I realized that we were okay, I looked up to see this big space in the air where it seemed to ripple, somehow. It had cracks in it, like a windshield when a rock hits it. I looked down and there was a bunch of shrapnel and stone on the other side. There wasn’t anything between us and the ripples. It shattered when you made a noise; I guess my concentration broke. When the paramedics and firefighters arrived, I automatically threw one up between us. I realized then that _I_ was doing that and I made it go away before anyone noticed it.”

Tadashi hesitated. “Hiro, when you were in pain… what were you thinking?”

Hiro scrunched up his face in faint distaste. “Just that I wanted it to stop. And then…” he trailed off, looking almost like he wasn’t sure he believed himself. “I heard you. You were blaming yourself for something.” Hiro looked up at his brother, his eyes inquisitive.

“The paramedic said it wasn’t my fault that you got hurt,” Tadashi said quietly. “But she was wrong.” He tapped Hiro’s forehead gently. “Your head hurt because you pulled me back. You wouldn’t have had to if I hadn’t tried to run in there anyway.”

Hiro blinked at him. “I heard you, and I could feel you, and then you were gone. It started to hurt again, and I didn’t know where you were. But then you spoke again, and you asked me to wake up.”

Tadashi watched his brother carefully. “Hiro, when you were in pain before the medics arrived, you were making things around you float.”

“I… what?” Hiro stared at him, confusion setting in.

“Little pieces of glass, metal, stone… even my hat. You didn’t put them down until you calmed down. In the ambulance too, before you woke up. I spoke to you because your jacket zipper started defying the laws of gravity.” Tadashi nudged Hiro’s arm, smiling at him gently. “No one noticed,” he assured him quickly. “No one was around the first time, and I stopped you the second time.”

Hiro frowned. “Why did it hurt so badly?”

“I don’t know, Hiro. We’ll figure it out. Together,” Tadashi promised. 

Before they could talk any further, they were interrupted by two strong headlights. Aunt Cass parked the truck and came rushing out, immediately wrapping her nephews in a tight hug.

“Oh thank god you’re both alright,” she sighed, hugging them tighter. She pulled away, searching both of their faces long and hard. Suddenly her fingers were crushing their ears. “Don’t you two ever scare me like that again, do you understand me? You could have been seriously hurt!” She hugged them again, the true meaning of her sentence hanging heavily over the trio. Hiro and Tadashi exchanged a glance behind her back.

Aunt Cass pulled away again, this time cradling a cheek in each hand. “Now let’s get you two home.”

They loaded the moped into the back of the truck, and Tadashi and Hiro sat in the back seat, falling asleep together until they got home. Cass was sure to get a picture or two before waking them. She sent them up to bed, thankful that everything had turned out alright.


	2. Chapter 2

Tadashi’s sleep wasn’t quite fitful, but it wasn’t the best he’d ever had either. He’d fallen asleep alright, but it wasn’t long before he was woken up by a strong feeling of fear. He’d shot up in bed, trying to place the source of the emotion, when he saw Hiro’s side of the room. Hiro was curled in a ball under his covers, shaking lightly. The air around him was filled with levitating objects. Pencils, pens, cups, tools, wrappers, the stuff on Hiro’s shelves: anything lighter than a shoe was floating in the air around him. Tadashi sprang from his bed, batting away objects between him and Hiro. It took a minute or so to calm Hiro enough to wake him. Tadashi didn’t exactly want to know what would happen when you startled a kid with telekinesis while he was making stuff fly in his sleep.

After convincing Hiro to scoot over, Tadashi settled in beside him, and the two slept better. Tadashi’s dreams though, they were something else.

He dreamed of driving. He was small again, sitting in the back seat with his brother. Hiro was tiny, sitting happily in a car seat. It was dark; night-time, he knew. He looked out the windshield idly, seeing two bright headlights in front of them. He heard his parents gasp. He _knew_ . He threw himself on top of Hiro. He _had_ to protect Hiro. He was his little brother, his otouto, and he had to keep him safe.

The crash was loud. He was thrown forward a little, crashing against the soft-yet-firm back of the seat in front of him. Hiro was crying, but he was okay. They were both okay. Tadashi’s head _hurt,_ but he was okay. He curled back around Hiro, calming him down and falling asleep.

“Tadashi?”

His eyes snapped open, trying to find the source of the voice. Hiro was watching him with wide eyes. “Hmm? Hiro?” He muttered groggily, not sure why he was awake. “What’s up?”

Hiro reached up a hand and tapped it on air above him. Tadashi blinked up at him, confused. “What are you…” Tadashi looked again, realizing that Hiro had his hand pressed against rippling air. His eyes widened and he looked around, realizing that they were under a dome of the strange barrier. “Oh.”

“What were you dreaming about?” Hiro watched him carefully. He reached out and poked his head. “Did it hurt?”

Tadashi frowned. “No, it didn’t hurt,” he said quietly. Hiro frowned a little, but Tadashi didn’t notice. “I dreamt about the night mom and dad died.”

Hiro lowered his head, speaking softly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Tadashi shook his head, putting a hand on Hiro’s shoulder. “No, it’s fine. Hiro… I think I know why my head didn’t hurt as bad as yours did.”

“What?” Hiro’s head snapped back up, his eyes searching Tadashi’s. “Why?”

Tadashi took a shuddering breath. “Because I’d done it before, Hiro. The shield didn’t hurt me as much as your… powers... did you because I’d _used_ mine before.”

“What do you mean, you’ve used them before?”

Tadashi laid back down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. “The night of the crash, when I saw the drunk driver coming, I threw myself over you to protect you.” He looked over at Hiro. “Sound familiar? When the police and the ambulance arrived, you and I were fine. They said it was a miracle. You and I were untouched in the destroyed car we’d been riding in, the only injury to speak of was that my head hurt. They just assumed it was from hitting the seat on impact. I don’t think it was, Hiro. I think I hurt myself when I shielded us.”

Hiro flopped back down on the bed with a groan. _‘And the whole speaking-in-each-other’s-heads thing?’_ he asked silently.

Tadashi chuckled. _‘Haven’t figured that one out yet.’_

“Alright boys, breakfast is ready!”

Tadashi and Hiro both flinched at the sound Aunt Cass’s voice. They hadn’t heard her coming up the stairs during their silent conversation. A small pen went flying in her direction at the same time a shield went up, the pen stopping silently at the wall of rippling air. The boys immediately dropped their powers, glancing at each other in surprise. They’d used them reflexively.

Aunt Cass just blinked for a second before looking over to where she heard the pen drop. “What was that?” she mused quietly.

“Mochi!” Tadashi answered quickly.

Hiro nodded vigorously before slowing down on account of his headache. “That darn cat!” he said, mustering a smile through the grimace of pain.

Aunt Cass just shrugged. She couldn’t see the spot on the desk that Mochi allegedly occupied anyway. “Anyway, I made pancakes and waffles! Come down and have some while the bacon is still hot, okay?”

She smiled warmly at them before walking back down the stairs. Once they were sure she was out of earshot they flopped back down on the bed with twin groans.

“That was close, Hiro.”

“Thanks for the shield. I might have actually hit her with it.”

“The shield was because she startled me. We just got lucky, otouto.”

The two brothers rolled out of bed and headed down to join their aunt for breakfast, resolving to practice their abilities when they got the chance. They were lucky that Tadashi’s shield was gone before it could look like anything more than a trick of the light and that she hadn’t actually seen the pen flying right at her. Keeping this a secret was going to take a little more practice.

  
  
  
  


The Nerd Crew stopped by before lunch. They told them a carefully edited version of what happened. They heard the alarm, went to check it out, waited for Callaghan, BOOM, ambulance, home. No powers, no running in, nothing out of the ordinary. Part of Tadashi felt guilty. Not just for keeping the truth from them, but for not telling them about his recklessness. If anyone should know, it would be _them_. They’d collectively tear him a new one for being an idiot, and he’d have deserved it. Hiro felt it was safer to keep that detail from them. Less dangerous questions, he said. Less opportunities to slip up.

They spent the next few hours talking about random things when Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go, and Tadashi got a text alert from SFIT.

Professor Robert Callaghan died in the Showcase Fire.

The cheery mood popped like a balloon. Hiro looked over at Tadashi, still staring at his phone in shock.

_‘It’s not your fault, Tadashi.’_

_‘If I’d gotten there sooner, maybe-’_

“No!”

The room startled at Hiro’s outburst. Tadashi and Hiro just flinched. Hiro hadn’t meant for the rest of the room to be included, but there wasn’t any going back now.

“There wasn’t anything you could have done. You _know_ that, Tadashi.” Hiro stared hard at his brother, his face a jumble of emotions that were probably incomprehensible to everyone but Tadashi.

“Tadashi,” Honey Lemon cooed softly, suddenly understanding what Hiro meant. The rest realized it a fraction of a second later.

Go Go and Honey Lemon reached him first, wrapping the Hamada in a hug. Fred and Wasabi weren’t far behind. Hiro hung back. Go Go noticed from inside the pile and snatched his hoodie, yanking him in.

“If you went in to get him, you wouldn’t have gotten out in time,” Fred said quietly. “We would have lost you.”

There wasn’t an ounce of life in Fred’s tone. It was so very un-Fred that it caught everyone off guard. Tadashi’s eyes burned. What would they have sounded like if Callaghan hadn’t been the only one lost to the fire? Would they all have been like Fred? Tadashi was hit with the weight of his mistake in full force.

_‘I’m so sorry.’_

“You’re here, and that’s all that matters,” Honey Lemon said quietly. Tadashi and Hiro stiffened, both knowing that Tadashi hadn’t actually said it out loud.

“Don’t be sorry for something you couldn’t do anything about,” Wasabi added, “It’ll just drive you crazy.”

“Woman up.” Go Go popped a bubble, and never before had it been so comforting. Of course, it was less effective due to the panic coursing through the Hamadas’ veins.

Fred just hugged them all tighter. Tadashi and Hiro found each other’s eyes through the tangle of arms and heads, staring at each other with wide eyes and pale faces. Neither of them dared to say something silently again. They’d gotten lucky this time, none of them seemed to realize that Tadashi hadn’t actually _said_ anything.

“Thanks, guys. I’m sorry-”

“Nope,” Go Go said, popping another bubble. “No apologizing.”

Tadashi sighed. “Thanks,” he amended.

“Better.” She almost sounded smug, but there was still too much grief in the air for it to really be smug.

One by one, they peeled out of the hug. “I’m… I’m gonna go tell Aunt Cass.” Tadashi slipped out the door, leaving the rest of them in the garage. Go Go looked pointedly down at Hiro.

“Um?”

She rolled her eyes. “Stay with him for now, okay?”

Hiro nodded quickly, well, as quickly as he comfortably could, and followed after his brother.

He found Tadashi in the kitchen. Aunt Cass’ eyes were somber. Hiro tugged at Tadashi’s sleeve, bringing his attention back to him. He jabbed a thumb at the stairs to their room, pulling his brother along.

Safely in their room, Hiro let go of his brother. “ _What was that?”_ he hissed.

“I don’t know!” Tadashi rubbed his face with his hands. “I thought only you could hear me when I did that!”

Hiro groaned. He paused with a hand in his hair, thinking. “Wait, who did you think about when you said it?”

Tadashi just blinked at him for a moment before his brain caught up. His eyes widened. “Oh my god. I only meant for you to hear it, but I had still been thinking that I should be saying it to them too. They heard me because I subconsciously wanted them to.”

Hiro put his face in his hands. “We’re gonna have to be more careful. We’re both just lucky that they didn’t notice the difference.” He groaned again.

“We’ll have to test the limits of this… telepathy, or whatever it is.” Tadashi sighed. “Just… probably not today. I don’t want to mess with them today.”

Hiro nodded before darting in for a hug. “It’s not your fault, Tadashi,” he said quietly. “Even if we stayed in the building instead of going on the bridge, there’s no guarantee we’d have been able to do anything.”

Tadashi hugged him back. “I’m sorry, Hiro. _They_ might not have understood what I meant, but I’m sorry.”

Hiro just hugged him tighter.

  
  
  
  


Classes that week were cancelled to give the students room to grieve. A memorial shrine was set up on the steps outside of the university, surrounded by candles and flowers. The funeral was a large gathering; students, alumni, friends, distant relatives, and colleagues all showed up to pay their respects. The Nerd Crew took to hanging out quietly in the Hamada Garage for a few hours every few days. They were all grieving, but being together helped. Tadashi and Hiro agreed not to test the limits of their telepathy with them for the time being. Instead, they messed with their powers when they were alone.

Tadashi was slowly learning how to make a variety of shields: ones that moved, ones that were shaped differently, ones that were farther away or in front of someone else entirely. Before, he’d only made the shields in ways that protected him too. Now he had started to try and make shields that didn’t need to originate near him at all.

Hiro had to take it easier. Unlike Tadashi, he’d damn-near _concussed_ himself using his powers the first time. Tadashi reminded him that he probably had, but Hiro ignored him. He started small, moving light objects like paper or pencils. He’d quickly moved on to pens and then to heavier tools before Tadashi caught him trying to lift the toolbox. In his defense, he was doing great. But it did hurt a little, so Hiro let him have it. Instead, he spent the next few days working on his precision by folding origami. You’d think it’d be easier with your mind than with your hands, but you’d be _wrong_. It was a frustrating few days. Tadashi found it incredibly amusing and Aunt Cass was just confused by all the little origami figures that kept cropping up in near-impossible places.

When classes started back up again, Tadashi brought Hiro along. They’d become nearly inseparable after the showcase, neither wanting to leave the other alone for too long. Their reasons were slightly different, but the end result was the same. Tadashi was worried about Hiro accidentally losing control of his powers without Tadashi there to calm him down, and Hiro was worried that Tadashi would get hurt again. The rest of the Nerd Lab had no problem with the young Hamada hanging around. They’d grown close to him during the time leading up to the showcase, and Hiro would be joining them for the new term anyway. Why not start early?

Hiro had found the last microbot in his pocket. He’d thought long and hard about what to do with it before finally attaching it to a small chain. He debated for a while whether he wanted to keep it on his wrist or around his neck until Tadashi suggested he keep it as a necklace. It was less likely to get caught on something that way, he’d reasoned. The microbot was a token, a reminder of that night. Not just for Hiro, either, but for Tadashi too. Seeing it around Hiro’s neck was a constant reminder of what had changed and what had stayed the same. It was a symbol of ‘what-if’ that kept them sober. Their powers were fun and useful, but it kept them from getting too carried away.

Tadashi continued working on Baymax, upgrading some of his hardware with Hiro’s help. He now boasted a longer battery life thanks to his new supercapacitors.

They took him home one night for ‘tinkering’, fully intending to get him to monitor them while they used their powers. Tadashi was worried about why using them too much made their heads hurt. Baymax confirmed that their brain activity spiked when they used their abilities and hypothesized that too much stimulation simply increased the blood flow. When they used their powers too much and too fast, the brain swelled too quickly. Normally it was harmless if they stopped at the warning signs, but Baymax advised caution. The brothers took it to heart. Neither of them wanted a repeat of Hiro’s first time. They figured that with practice, it became easier and less stressful for their bodies to call up the same amount of power. After a week of dutiful scanning, Baymax agreed.

It wasn’t much longer until the Hamada brothers decided they’d waited long enough to test out their telepathy. They’d practiced a little bit together, discovering that they could send each other impressions and pictures if they concentrated hard enough. They decided to go through with it in the garage the next time the Nerd Crew hung out there.

They’d agreed beforehand only to send stuff that they could actually say. They didn’t exactly want to explain how they’d sent someone an impression or a memory by mistake. So they decided to keep it to words.

Go Go and Fred were playing a racing game on a monitor while everyone else watched and waited their turn. Tadashi was sitting on the floor in front of the couch and Hiro was standing a little bit behind everyone. They had to be careful not to let anyone see their faces while they were ‘speaking’.

_‘Ten bucks says Go Go’s gonna lose.’_ Hiro almost breathed a sigh of relief when no one reacted. If Go Go had heard him say it, he’d have gotten a fist to the shoulder. Tadashi, on the other hand, was _not_ thrilled. They’d decided that if someone didn’t hear them, they’d try and change the intended audience and say it again.

_‘Ten bucks says Go Go’s gonna lose,’_ Tadashi said silently.

Go Go snorted. “Wanna run that by me again, Hamada?”

The rest of the room snickered, but no one as hard as Hiro. He waited until the last lap and started to press the buttons on her controller.

“What the-”

Everyone watched slack-jawed as Go Go’s character spun off the road, allowing Fred to pass her on the home stretch. Fred crossed the finish line with a loud cheer.

“Tadashi, did you rig the controller?” Go Go shook the controller in his face, eyes wide in disbelief. Tadashi was almost laughing too hard to respond. She raised the controller threateningly.

“Ack! No! I didn’t do anything, Go Go, I swear!” He threw his hands up in the air, trying to simultaneously surrender and look as small as possible.

Go Go scowled at him, still not entirely convinced.

“Look,” Tadashi started with a chuckle. “If you want me to prove it we can take it apart and see. I didn’t tamper with the controller, I _swear._ ”

Go Go narrowed her eyes, sensing a loophole. She whirled on Hiro. “What about you, Hiro?”

Hiro gulped, glancing over at Tadashi. Seeing no help, he decided to just start talking. “I promise I am not responsible for any hardware or software changes to any controller.” He threw his hands up in surrender, grinning at her as innocently as he could.

Crisis averted, they fell back into a less dangerous hangout. Hiro and Tadashi took turns testing the telepathy, asking simple questions or making idle statements that fit into the conversation or started new ones. After a while they had it figured out enough to feel comfortable talking privately with each other again. The next few weeks went on like that: happy and peaceful. They had almost considered telling Aunt Cass, but Tadashi decided that there were a few things that he wanted to figure out before dropping the bomb.


	3. Running

Hiro had fallen asleep in Tadashi’s lab while working on something. When he woke up, Tadashi was gone. Disoriented, he looked around the lab for a note or anything to indicate where his brother was. Hiro sent out a thought, but Tadashi was either out of range or unable to respond. He popped his head out of the lab to ask the others in the common area if they knew where he went, but no one did. Tadashi was just gone.

Hiro closed himself in his brother’s lab, trying desperately to control his breathing. It was shallow and panicked. What if something happened? What if Tadashi got hurt? What if-

Hiro hadn’t noticed the sound of Baymax inflating. He hadn’t noticed the lighter objects in the room floating.

He felt Baymax’s smooth vinyl arms wrap him in a hug and heard the robot coach him through breathing exercises. Baymax walked him through his panic attack until he could breathe again. Looking slowly around the room, he realized that he had managed to make everything lighter than forty pounds levitate. He carefully set everything back down, taking care to put them as close to their proper place as he could.

He lingered in Baymax’s hold for a moment before pulling himself away. “Thanks, Baymax,” he said quietly. He furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t remember saying ‘ow’. How were you activated?”

“Tadashi upgraded my activation to include sounds of emotional distress. I was alerted to your need for help when you began to hyperventilate. My scans indicate that you have had a panic attack. What seems to be the problem?”

Hiro blinked at the robot, absorbing all the information. Had Tadashi had this in mind when he changed Baymax’s activation? He shook his head. “I woke up and Tadashi was gone,” he said quietly.

Baymax tilted his head. “I do not understand. It is not unusual for you and Tadashi to be separate.”

“This is… different, Baymax. At… at the Showcase, he tried to run in after Callaghan. I stopped him, but it was a very,  _ very _ near thing.” Hiro shuddered. “He would have  _ died, _ Baymax. When I woke up and he was gone and no one knew where he was, I started to think about all the things that could have happened.”

Baymax blinked at him, considering. Or at least, Hiro got the impression that he was. Before Baymax could do anything, Hiro’s necklace started moving. He yelped in surprise, his hand flying up to his chest. He trapped the necklace in his hand, peering down at it. The microbot was  _ moving. _ Hiro let go of the bot and undid the clasp at the back of his neck. He pulled the necklace away from his body, clasping the chain together again.

“My microbot?” He watched it twitch and spasm in confusion. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Anxiety is a very natural response to a traumatic incident.”

Hiro shot Baymax a glance before looking around the lab. “No, that’s not… The thing is attracted to the other microbots, but that’s impossible. They were destroyed in the fire.” He set the necklace in a glass petri dish and set the lid on top, shaking his head. “Dumb thing’s broken.” Hiro turned away, leaving the microbot to clink softly against the glass. He picked up his tools and continued working on what he had been doing before his ill-fated nap.

“Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere.”

“Oh yeah? Why don’t you, uh, find out where it’s trying to go?” Hiro mumbled, only half-listening.

“Would that stabilize your pubescent mood swings?”

“Uh-huh. Absolutely.” Hiro was almost entirely tuned out already, fiddling with the work in front of him. “Wait,  _ pubescent mood swings?” _ Hiro spun in his chair to ask Baymax what he meant by that-

Only to find an empty room. He hit rewind in his brain-  _ oh shit _ .

Hiro burst out of the lab door, looking around frantically. Heads turned towards him, alarmed and curious. “Has anyone seen Baymax?” he asked quickly.

Multiple sets of eyes widened and pointed in the same direction. Hiro took off, running down the halls and asking everyone he saw where the walking marshmallow had gone. He wasn’t on the chase for two minutes before Hiro heard Tadashi in his head.

_ ‘Hiro? Why did someone just tell me you’ve been running in the halls?’ _

Hiro sent over the condensed memory and he could almost  _ feel  _ Tadashi stumble in shock.

_ ‘We have to find him!’ _

_ ‘What do you think I’m trying to do, play hall-bowling?’ _

_ ‘I’ll grab the moped; we’ll make better time.’ _

_ ‘Hurry!’ _

  
  
  
  


Tadashi had just finished running errands on campus when he was stopped in the hall.

“What’s up?”

“Tadashi, your brother was just running through the halls like a bat out of hell. Is everything okay?”

Tadashi blinked at them in surprise. “This is the first I’ve heard of it. Thanks for letting me know; I’ll figure it out and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Mostly satisfied, the professor kept walking, leaving Tadashi alone with his thoughts. Well, not  _ entirely _ alone.

_ ‘Hiro? Why did someone just tell me you’ve been running in the halls?’ _

Tadashi received a condensed memory in response. He sputtered, stumbling a step. Panic attack, microbot, Baymax!

_ ‘We have to find him!’ _

_ ‘What do you think I’m trying to do, play hall-bowling?’ _

_ ‘I’ll grab the moped; we’ll make better time.’ _

_ ‘Hurry!’ _

  
  
  
  


Hiro raced across the quad, asking anyone and everyone where the big white robot went. It wasn’t long before he spotted him getting on a trolley.

_ ‘I’ve got the moped; where are you?’ _

_ ‘Baymax just got on a trolley outside the north entrance!’ _

_ ‘Try to keep up as best as you can. I’m coming!’ _

__ Across campus, Tadashi sped off towards the north entrance. He tried to remember the trolley’s route, hoping that Baymax would at least wait until the next stop to get off. He quickly spotted a familiar kid with fluffy hair and a blue jacket running on the sidewalk.

_ ‘I’m right behind you, Hiro!’ _

Tadashi slowed down enough to let his brother on before they were back to full speed. Hiro was still breathing heavily, so Tadashi decided to continue the conversation telepathically to give his brother time to recover.

_ ‘Did you see where he was going?’ _

__ Hiro nodded, although that was kind of a moot point while he was sitting behind him. He told Tadashi which trolley he’d gotten on and where it was headed next. They spent the next ten minutes anxiously following Baymax’s trail, catching glimpses of him at corners and in crowds. At one point they had to ditch the moped so they could keep going. They finally caught up to him outside of a warehouse by the bay.

“Baymax!” Tadashi called. The brothers ran up to the rogue healthcare companion, panting.

“Are you  _ crazy? _ What are you doing?” Hiro demanded, his hands on his legs.

Baymax turned to face them, petri dish in hand. “I have found where your tiny robot wants to go.”

“I told you,” Hiro said, taking the petri dish. “It’s broken. It’s not trying to go…” He looked down, moving the dish from side to side. “Huh?” The microbot just kept pointing towards the door.

Tadashi just watched in disbelief as Hiro walked up to the door and grabbed the padlock. “Locked,” Hiro sighed.

“Hiro, what do you think you’re doing?”

Hiro just ignored him, frowning down at the lock. Tadashi got the impression that he was trying to pick the lock with his mind. Baymax looked up, locking his gaze on the side of the building.

“There is a window,” Baymax said quietly. Hiro looked up, noticing the open window in question. A window about a dozen feet off the ground. Great, now he’d been distracted from the idea of picking a lock in favor of  _ climbing through a window. _

“Unbelievable,” Tadashi said, sliding a hand down his face. Clearly these two idiots were hell-bent on seeing this through. He might as well help keep them safe.

  
  
  


Tadashi used his shields to make steps up to the window when they all proved too short to reach past the large metal shipping container. Tadashi slipped into the building first, citing his powers as reason enough. He now had the ability to keep multiple shields active, so it wasn’t a concern. Hiro came through next, and Baymax… got stuck. After a terribly tense minute of deflating and reinflating, Baymax was back to trailing behind the Hamadas as they moved through the empty warehouse.

Hiro brought the petri dish back out, letting the microbot lead them. They turned a corner on the ground floor to see some kind of activity on the far end. Hiro quickly backtracked and grabbed a broom for protection. If Tadashi hadn’t been so tense, he would have found it funny. They crept closer, no longer needing the little microbot to guide them. Hiro held the broom in front of him like a weapon, reminding Tadashi to teach him a little bit of kendo to go along with the karate. Why not, right?

They peered through the clear tarps, squinting to try and make out the details.

_ ‘An… assembly line?’  _ Tadashi mused silently, uneasy.

They moved along, their eyes quickly drawn to the little conveyor belt running out the back of the little enclosure and into a barrel.

Hiro stuck his hands in the barrel, his eyes wide.  _ ‘My microbots?’  _ He let the tech slip through his fingers, looking up at Tadashi with wide eyes. Their minds were flying at a million miles a minute, occasionally shooting confused inquiries the other’s way.

_ ‘Someone’s making more,’  _ Tadashi thought, nudging Hiro. Their gaze fell on the barrels in the other end of the room. Dozens and dozens of barrels, all full to the brim with microbots. 

Hiro spotted a board covered in pictures, pins, and yarn along the wall. He took a step forward, his anxiety making a few stray microbots rise around him.

“Hiro?”

Baymax’s voice cut through Hiro’s concentration. He screamed, reflexively throwing his hands between them and the few dozen microbots he’d been levitating at him, bouncing harmlessly off of the robot’s vinyl exterior.

Tadashi wasn’t too composed either; Hiro’s scream caused him to throw up a dome shield that encompassed himself, Hiro, and Baymax. He let the shield fall, seeing that the only threat was Baymax’s tact. 

“You gave me a heart attack!” The boys murmured; Hiro to Baymax and Tadashi to Hiro. The brothers exchanged a glance.

“My hands are equipped with defibrillators.” Baymax rubbed his palms together, their centers glowing a pale blue. “Clear.”

Hiro threw up his hands and backed up a step as Tadashi put a hasty shield between the two. “Stop, stop, stop! It’s just an expression,” Hiro cried, exasperated.

The microbot started clinking rapidly in Hiro’s pocket and Tadashi shivered, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. It felt like-

Tadashi froze, spinning around to face the feeling. The sound of microbots filled the air as they began to rise above the barrels. Hiro looked back, shoving the dish back in his pocket. 

“Oh no,” Baymax said softly.

“Understatement of the year,” Tadashi muttered quickly with wide eyes, grabbing Hiro’s hand. “I think it’s time to go.”

Hiro nodded. “Run!”

It took approximately a second and a half for the brothers to realize that Baymax wasn’t with them. They glanced back to see him waddling placidly after them. “Oh,  _ come on!” _ Hiro used his telekinesis to grab Baymax’s hand and drag him along until they were back together.

“I am not fast.”

“Yeah, no kidding!”

Tadashi was too distracted to pay attention to the bantering next to him. He could practically  _ feel _ the anger and intent from behind them. Whoever this was, they intended to keep them from escaping. 

They’d reached to door and Hiro was busy trying to get Baymax to bust it down. Tadashi suddenly grabbed Hiro by the hand and ran to the side, Hiro in turn dragged Baymax along. The swarm of microbots slammed into the door behind them before giving chase. They ducked and weaved around pipes and slipped through a doorway a little too narrow for Baymax. Hiro threw the bar to the door down a moment before the microbots could follow, but it only delayed them for a few more seconds. They were already coming out the way they came and over the top. 

_ ‘Like the Titanic,’  _ Tadashi thought. _ ‘The bulkheads weren’t tall enough.’ _

_ ‘Not relevant!’  _ Hiro screeched back.

They dropped into a crawlspace under the floor, quickly moving through. They popped back out after a few turns, running on top towards the window they’d come from. The floor rattled under them, and Tadashi realized too late that they were running on metal slats, not concrete.

The microbots surged under them, throwing all three onto the catwalk above. Tadashi quickly peeled himself off of Baymax, freezing when he felt another surge of intent. He snapped his head up, seeing a man in dark clothes and a kabuki mask on the catwalk across the warehouse. His blood ran cold and he heard Hiro gasp underneath him. Tadashi yanked Baymax off of his brother, dragging them both to the window.

He tried to push Baymax through, but he was stuck. Tadashi grit his teeth and stepped between Hiro and the approaching microbots. He heard Hiro cry out and widened his eyes, getting the impression-  _ Holy shit, he’s hanging out of the window. _

Tadashi was out of options. He threw a bubble shield around himself. Having coded Baymax himself, he knew that Baymax would take care of Hiro once he was out the window. Tadashi braced for impact and the microbots slammed into his shield, cracking it in half a dozen places. The momentum threw him into the window behind him, shattering it. The next moment happened in slow motion.

Now free of the window, Baymax caught Hiro in his arms to shield him from the fall. Tadashi watched the raining glass and knew that Baymax wouldn’t be able to protect Hiro from that. He threw up another bubble shield over the two of them. Tadashi came crashing down to the ground in his own shield, only a little bit of dizziness to show for the fall. Baymax’s bubble was rushed and half of it shattered on impact. Baymax still hit the ground, but not as hard as he would have. The other half of the bubble sheltered them from the falling glass. Tadashi was the first one up, dragging Hiro and Baymax along with him.

Tadashi felt the intent behind them fade, but he didn’t dare slow down.

Eventually they made it back to the moped, running on adrenaline and fumes. They climbed on as best as they could, the rapidly-deflating Baymax draped over Hiro. They very quickly found themselves at the police station. 

“Alright, let me get this straight,” the sergeant at the desk said. “A man in a  _ kabuki  _ mask attacked you, with an army of miniature flying robots.”

“Microbots,” Hiro corrected quickly, displaying the petri dish like it explained everything.

“... _ Micro _ bots…”

“Yeah. He was controlling them telepathically with a neurocranial transmitter,” Hiro said, pointing to his head.

Tadashi dragged a hand down his face, already knowing where this was going.

“So, Mr. Kabuki was using ESP to attack you and balloon man.”

Tadashi’s eye twitched at the mention of ESP. Called it. Baymax grabbed a piece of tape and began to obnoxiously seal the holes in his vinyl arms. The sergeant pushed the tape closer to Baymax.

“Did you file a report when your flying robots were stolen?”

Tadashi moved his hand from his face, spotting the nameplate on the man’s chest. “No, we thought they were all destroyed,” he said, exasperated.

“Look, I know it  _ sounds _ crazy-” Hiro said.

_ ‘And you have no idea,’  _ the brothers thought together.

“-but Baymax was there, too. Tell him.”

Baymax lifted his finger in the air. “Yes, Officer. He is telling the truUUUuuthhh.” He stepped forward, fighting to keep his balance. His eyes blinked lazily, not even bothering to open fully afterwards.

“What the- What’s wrong with you?” Hiro stepped forward, ready to steady the robot.

A light flashed on Baymax’s chest, and Tadashi laughed incredulously.

“LOw bAtterYYyyyy.” Baymax slurred, his eyes shuttering as they tried to focus. He made a small hiccup sound and laughed.

Hiro surged forwards, trying to keep Baymax on his feet. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Try to keep it together.”

Baymax straightened a little and moved his hand in a rushed wave. “I’m healthcare, your personal Baymax companion.” His words were slurred, and he almost fell on Hiro, reaching again for the tape dispenser. Tadashi just laughed harder.

“Kids, how about we call your parents-”

Hiro froze and Tadashi stopped laughing.

_ ‘We can’t tell Aunt Cass,’  _ one started.

_ ‘She’ll kill us,’  _ finished the other.

“-and get  _ them  _ down here? Write your name and number down on this piece of paper, and we can.. Oh!” By the time that Sergeant Gerson spun around, the Hamadas were already gone, the tape still streaming out of the dispenser.

Outside, they dragged Baymax down the steps, drawing a curious glance from another officer.

“We’ve gotta get you home to your charging station,” Hiro started. He glanced over at Tadashi, who was still watching Baymax in amused awe. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s just… I’ve never seen him like this,” Tadashi said, grinning widely. “I didn’t program this. He must be diverting power from some of his systems to make up for the deficiency. It makes him  _ drunk _ . It’s fantastic!” He walked up to Baymax, patting his shoulder. “Can you walk, buddy?”

“I will scan you now. Scan complete!” Baymax leaned back, falling back onto his butt with a few hiccups. “Healthcare.”


	4. Intent

It took some work to get Baymax to stay still on the moped. Really it was some sly ingenuity from the brothers that got the job done in the end. They got Baymax to deflate a little, and then Tadashi stuffed him in a shield box. Hiro kept it balanced on the back of the seat with some careful telekinesis. They were home just before dark, having gone fast enough that no one would think twice if the little white robot looked shiny.

They opened the garage door quietly, walking the moped in. “So let’s get the story straight,” Tadashi started quietly. “We were at school  _ all day, _ got it?”

“We jumped out a window,” Baymax said enthusiastically.

The Hamadas ducked their heads in a flinch, looking towards the door to the house. 

Hiro tried covering Baymax’s face with his hands. “No! Quiet! Shh.”

Baymax said it again, but quietly this time. Tadashi watched them, exasperation rising. “You can’t say things like that around Aunt Cass,” he chided.

Tadashi and Hiro shared a glance and started sneaking through the door into the house. They shushed Baymax and he shushed back. They were just in the door when they heard the thunk of Baymax’s head on the stairs.

“Tadashi? Hiro? You home?”

_ ‘No, it’s Uncle Todd.’ _

Cass laughed. “Very funny, Tadashi.” The boys winced, realizing that Tadashi had accidentally included her in the thought. “Come on up, the wings are almost ready!”

Baymax sprung up the stairs, waving wildly. “Whee!”

“ _ Will you be quiet?”  _ Hiro hissed under his breath, trying to keep the ‘drunken’ robot from going up any further.

“Yeah, wings! Whee!” Aunt Cass repeated cheerily.

Tadashi poked his head out to see Aunt Cass setting the table.  _ ‘Now!’  _ He moved aside to let Hiro and Baymax through.  _ ‘Get him on that charger! I’ll stall for you.’  _

“All right, get ready to have your faces melted,” Aunt Cass called. It was a wonder anyone could be so excited about chicken wings.

Hiro struggled with Baymax until he gave up trying to be subtle and started using his powers to push him up the stairs. With them out of the way, Tadashi moved to help set the table. There was a small crash from upstairs and Aunt Cass looked up to the ceiling. “What was that?”

Tadashi didn’t need an impression from Hiro to know that he needed help with Baymax. “Probably just Mochi. I’ll go make sure everything’s alright up there and wash up, okay?”

Cass just shrugged. Tadashi turned and took the stairs two at a time, getting to their room in almost record time. At the top of the stairs was Baymax, holding a rather disgruntled-looking Mochi in his arms.

“Hairy baby! Hairy baby…”

Tadashi just watched in awe for a moment until Mochi noticed him standing there and ran downstairs. “Alright, let’s get you in your station, buddy.”

Tadashi and Hiro helped get him to the red base, Baymax taking a few tries to successfully step in. He slurred some more and rearranged the words in his greeting. Once he was in, he kept still and and started to reinflate. The boys shared a sigh before heading downstairs for dinner with Aunt Cass.

Lucky enough she didn’t ask too many questions about their day, just basic stuff that was easy to answer. Eventually the heat of the wings faded and everything was cleaned up. After saying their goodnights to Aunt Cass, the boys just headed back upstairs for an early night. They flopped on Hiro’s bed and stared at the microbot that got them in so much trouble.

“It doesn’t make any sense.”

Tadashi rolled over to look at Hiro. “What?”

“My microbots. I thought they were all destroyed in the fire,” Hiro murmured, watching his little souvenir spin lazily on its chain.

Tadashi’s eyes widened. “You don’t think…”

Hiro sat up, catching his drift. “But, how?”

“The  _ fire _ . No one would notice a project going missing if it was in a fire, Hiro.”

Hiro’s eyes were wide. “He set the fire to cover his tracks.”

The next thought hit Tadashi like a freight train. “And Professor Callaghan…” Tadashi drew his knees up to his chest. “It wasn’t an accident, Hiro.” His voice was quiet and filled with grief.

Hiro’s eyes grew a little harder. “And you would have been killed too. Whoever did this, they were almost responsible for  _ two _ people that night.”

Tadashi laughed a small, hollow laugh. “Just when I think it can’t hurt any more. Someone killed Professor Callaghan all because my brother made some cool tech.” His voice was low and bitter, but Hiro knew that the bitterness had nothing to do with him.

“Where does it hurt?”

The brothers turned to see Baymax looking down at them calmly, his head tilted to the side. “I see no evidence of physical injury.”

Tadashi blinked up at him, suddenly understanding. “It’s a different kind of hurt.”

Baymax stepped closer. “You are my patient. I would like to help.”

“You can’t fix this one, buddy.” Hiro shifted on the bed, shaking his head at the robot.

Baymax stepped over to a computer and the screen started flashing, the images appearing on both the computer and on a projection from inside of Baymax. Tadashi straightened up, watching with interest. “Uh, what are you doing, Baymax?”

“I am downloading a database on personal loss.”

Tadashi and Hiro stared at him in shock, their mouths open.

“Database downloaded. Treatments include contact with friends and loved ones. I am contacting them now.” Pictures of Fred, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Go Go appeared on Baymax’s chest.

“No, no, no!” Tadashi stammered, trying to wipe the images off. “I… Don’t do that.”

“Your friends have been contacted.”

“Unbelievable.” Tadashi threw his hands up in the air half-heartedly.

Baymax wrapped his arms around Tadashi in a hug. “What, Baymax-”

“Other treatments include compassion and physical reassurance,” Baymax said calmly. He started to pat Tadashi’s head. “You will be alright. There, there.”

Tadashi chuckled, patting his vinyl arm. “Thanks, Baymax.”

“ _ You didn’t say that Baymax could do that!”  _ Hiro screeched quietly, trying to keep his voice down through his excitement.

Tadashi just grinned at him. “I made it so that learning was important to him. I didn’t know he could do that, but I’m not  _ surprised _ that he  _ did _ .” He looked back at Baymax fondly.

“I am sorry about the fire.”

Tadashi and Hiro flinched a bit, turning to watch Baymax again. “It’s okay. It was an accident,” Tadashi said. It came so easily, the tired and worn response to condolences. The moment the words left his mouth, he was reminded that it wasn’t really true. 

“But it  _ wasn’t. _ ” Hiro looked up at Tadashi, his eyes steely and determined. “Tadashi, that man in the mask started the fire.  _ He’s  _ responsible for Callaghan. We’ve gotta catch him.”

Tadashi didn’t need their telepathy to know that this wasn’t just Hiro wanting to avenge Tadashi’s professor, but to avenge what almost was. And he knew that there was no way to talk him down from it. Besides, if the police couldn’t do anything, they were the only ones that could.

“What do you have in mind?”

  
  
  
  


The three of them snuck downstairs, careful not to alert Aunt Cass. She was in the living room watching a scary movie, too engrossed to notice them anyway. Tadashi did have to pull Baymax along when he decided that the monster was more interesting than his ’patients’. Once they were safely in the garage, they powered on the lights and got to work. Hiro scanned Baymax, sending his measurements to his computer.

“Will apprehending the man in the mask improve your emotional states?”

The brothers looked at each other, gauging themselves for the responses they both knew were coming. “Absolutely.”

Hiro slid over to the computer, inserting a red chip. “Let’s work on your moves.”

Tadashi had more than a few reservations about teaching Baymax karate, but he knew that Baymax’s programming would only permit for its use in defense. It still didn’t thrill him that he was being temporarily repurposed into a  _ battle bot _ , but it was a necessary evil this time around. Together, they helped build Baymax’s new move set and designed some basic carbon fiber armor to protect his vulnerable vinyl.

“I have some concerns,” Baymax said eventually, all suited up in his new ‘threads’. “This armor may undermine my non-threatening, huggable design.”

The brothers just laughed. “That’s kind of the idea, buddy.” Hiro shook his head, grinning.

“It’s just temporary, Baymax,” Tadashi assured.

Hiro leaned back in his chair, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “You look sick!”

Baymax tilted his head. “I cannot be sick. I am a robot.”

“It’s just an expression,” Tadashi said, grinning from ear to ear.

Hiro’s computer called out that the data transfer to the new chip was complete, and the Hamadas quickly went over to have a look. Hiro grabbed the chip and drew a skull and bones on the side. Tadashi rolled his eyes good-naturedly. Hiro grabbed it and stood up, opening Baymax’s access port. He hesitated, looking to Tadashi for permission.

Tadashi nodded with a small smile. “Go ahead, Hiro.”

Hiro slipped the chip in and closed the access port. Baymax blinked, parsing the new data. “I fail to see how karate makes me a better healthcare companion.”

Hiro spun around, a sly grin on his face. “Well, you want to keep me healthy, don’t you?” He grabbed a board and held it in front of him, his face alive with what Tadashi could only interpret as ‘personal danger’. “Punch this.”

Tadashi quickly threw up a small shield in front of Hiro’s chest in case it didn’t go as his brother planned. Baymax wound up for the blow and punched easily through the wood, breaking it in half.

“Yes!” The brothers shared a look of ‘oh my god, that was awesome’ and spent the next few minutes taking turns calling out moves and setting up things to destroy. At one point Hiro called for gummy bears, and Tadashi was afraid they’d be cleaning up glass.

“Yeah! Fist bump!” Hiro held his fist out to Baymax, but the robot just looked between it and Hiro.

“‘Fist bump’ is not in my fighting database.”

“No, this isn’t a fighting thing,” Hiro chuckled. “It’s what people do sometimes when they’re excited or pumped up.”

Tadashi watched as Hiro grabbed Baymax’s hand and walked him through the motions. 

“Ba-da-la-la-la-la.”

Baymax’s interpretation of what an explosion sounded like threatened to send Tadashi over the edge. He snickered, trying desperately to contain his laughter. They didn’t want Aunt Cass to know they were awake.

“Hey, now you’re getting it.”

“I will add ‘fist bump’ to my care-giving matrix.”

Hiro turned back to Tadashi, excited. “Alright, let’s go get that guy.”

They opened the garage door and walked out. Baymax wouldn’t fit on the moped this time, and they knew better than to try. They walked through the city in the direction of the warehouse, blissfully unaware of the small car following at a distance. Instead, they talked quietly about the plan and how they’d use their powers only when they needed to and as subtly as possible.

Before long, they were standing in front of the warehouse. Hiro and Tadashi hovered behind the armored Baymax. The robot kicked down the door in front of them, scattering splinters of wood everywhere. “Get him, Baymax!” Hiro called. The brothers leaned out from behind the robot, seeing for themselves that the warehouse was  _ empty, _ like no one had even been there in the first place. Tadashi and Hiro looked at each other uneasily until they heard the now-familiar clink of a microbot against glass.

Hiro pulled it out of his pocket and started following it.

They turned around the corner and wandered through a shipyard, stacks of shipping containers piled high on concrete. Hiro only had eyes for the microbot, so Tadashi took it on himself to be their lookout. Baymax waddled after them and managed to keep up decently. Hiro sped up, walking out on a small concrete pier. Seeing where that was headed, Tadashi threw out a shield at the edge, catching Hiro before he could speed-walk his way into the bay.

Hiro rubbed his forehead, glancing back at Tadashi with a sheepish smile.

“Always wait one hour after eating before swimming,” Baymax chimed.

The microbot started thrashing harder, pounding against the dish until it popped the lid off, sailing towards the water. Tadashi was faster, catching it in a small bubble shield that Hiro pulled back. Hiro quickly put the necklace back on and watched the bay with wide eyes.

“He doesn’t know we’re here yet,” Tadashi said quietly. “Let’s keep it that way.”

They ran back for cover behind a stack of shipping containers, peering around the corner for the man in the mask. The man came out of the fog, gliding over the water on a large base of microbots, pulling some large metal  _ thing _ from the waves. Tadashi felt the nervous spike in the air, but he could feel that they hadn’t been noticed yet. Tadashi frowned. No, that wasn’t true. They  _ had  _ been seen, but the intent was wrong. It was… confused, and worried. He was vaguely aware of Hiro saying something to Baymax when the headlights blinded him and the intent sharpened. Tadashi spun, sinking into a defensive stance in front of Hiro, a shield ready to deploy.

The confusion spiked and the headlights turned off. The Nerd Crew piled out of Wasabi’s car. “Hiro? Tadashi?”

Tadashi and Hiro immediately froze, dread coiling in their stomachs.

“No, no, no!” Hiro started, waving his hands.

“Get out of here! Go!” Tadashi hissed, finishing the sentiment.

They just kept walking closer, confused and concerned and vaguely alarmed. ”Dude, what are you guys doing out here?” Wasabi asked, looking between the brothers.

“Nothing!” Hiro stammered, looking for a way out. “Just out for a walk. Helps my… pubescent mood swings,” he finished slowly. Tadashi shot him a look.

Wasabi’s eyes widened, catching sight of something behind Hiro. “Is that  _ Baymax?” _

“Yeah, but you really-”

“Uh…” Go Go started, examining Baymax. “Why is he wearing carbon-fiber  _ underpants?” _

“I also know karate,” Baymax added. 

“Helpful, Baymax,  _ thank you,” _ Tadashi said quickly. “You guys need to go.” He was starting to get desperate. The hairs on the back of his neck began to rise.

“No, don’t push us away, you two. We’re  _ here _ for you.” Honey Lemon put a hand on Hiro’s shoulder. “That’s why Baymax contacted us.”

Tadashi spun to look at Baymax, exasperated. Baymax blinked at him and spoke. “Those who suffer a loss require support from friends and loved ones.”

“Okay, but-” Tadashi started.

“Who would like to share their feelings first?” Baymax asked, cutting him off and looking around the group. Tadashi shuddered violently, drawing the worried gazes of Honey Lemon, Go Go, and Wasabi.

_ ‘He knows, Hiro. He’s coming.’ _

Hiro froze, looking his brother in the eye.  _ ‘How do you know that?’ _

“Ooh. I’ll go. Okay,” Fred jumped into the middle of the impromptu circle, clearing his throat. “My name is Fred, and it has been 30 days since my last… Holy  _ mother  _ of Megazon!”

Microbots were lifting the top shipping container, revealing the man in the kabuki mask behind them. 

Tadashi felt the abject fear grow and spread through the group.  _ ‘We’ve got to go. NOW.’ _

“Uh, is anyone else seeing this?” Fred asked. Honey Lemon took a picture, her flash making the man in the mask flinch. The man threw out his hands, tossing the container at them. The group ducked; only Baymax, Tadashi, and Hiro reacting enough to do anything. Baymax caught it, Tadashi had thrown a shield up around his friends, and Hiro was helping to hold the large metal box of death. Wasabi just screamed for a moment before realizing he wasn’t dead. After another moment of shock, they all ran. Tadashi let his shield down before anyone could run into it, grabbing Hiro’s arm and dragging him towards the car. 

“Baymax can handle that guy!” Hiro complained. Tadashi just shoved him in the car, the back seat uncomfortably full between the brothers, Fred, and Honey Lemon. Go Go took shotgun and Wasabi was already in the driver’s seat. No sooner than they were all in the car, Tadashi saw Baymax sailing towards them.

_ “Shit. _ Hiro, can you catch him?”

“I can try!”

Tadashi threw a shield over the roof of the car and Hiro tried to slow the fall, but Baymax still managed to break through the roof and get stuck. 

“Oh no,” Baymax supplied helpfully.

“Wasabi,  _ get us out of here. _ ” Tadashi said, watching the microbot swarm get closer. Wasabi quickly threw the car in reverse, backing away as fast as he could.

“Ah, goodbye!” he said idly, trying to turn the car around so he could drive properly.

“Hamada. Explanation.  _ Now. _ ” Go Go turned around, her eyes furious.

“He stole my microbots. He started the fire. We don’t know who he is!” Hiro supplied, stammering. He looked back out the windshield. “Tadashi, he’s not gonna make it,” he warned.

“I know. Baymax, palm-heel strike!”

Tadashi threw up another shield to protect the car where Baymax couldn’t, the force of the hit spinning the car the rest of the way around. They screamed as the car spun, Tadashi reinforcing the shield  _ just in case _ .

Now facing the right way, they were racing through the city. Go Go gave directions for evasive action, Wasabi following them as best as he could. Hiro quietly helped the car stay on it’s wheels.

“That mask, the black suit...” Fred began, his tone almost a little  _ too _ casual for anyone’s liking. “We’re under attack from a super villain, people! I mean, how cool is that? I mean, it’s scary, obviously. But  _ how cool!” _

_ ‘If he’s a supervillain, what does that make us?’  _ Tadashi thought snidely. Hiro snorted.

Suddenly Wasabi was slamming on the brakes. 

Go Go spun to stare at Wasabi. “Why are we stopped?”

“The light’s red!”

“There are  _ no red lights  _ in a  _ car chase!” _

Tadashi could feel their pursuer gaining on them. The light turned green and they were on the move again.

“Why is he trying to kill us?” Wasabi stuck his head out the window. “Um, why are you trying to kill us?”

“It’s classic villain. We’ve seen too much!” Fred cried, turning back to watch behind them.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We don’t  _ know _ he’s trying to kill us,” Honey Lemon reasoned.

Tadashi felt the intent shift and concentrate. His eyes widened. “CAR!” Fred screamed.

“I got it!” Hiro knocked it off course as Tadashi threw up another layer of shielding.

“He’s trying to kill us!” Honey Lemon cried, no longer able to deny it.

Wasabi turned his turn signal on, gaining him another reaming from Go Go. Tadashi saw it coming the moment before Go Go put her gum on the dash; she wanted to take the wheel.

Now in control, Go Go sped up, the tires screaming on the damp road. The man in the mask appeared a block ahead, microbots moving threateningly. Go Go didn’t even hesitate. She threw them down a narrow alley to go around him. Tadashi threw up shield after shield as the barriers at the sides of the car were stripped away. The man appeared again at the top of the hill but Go Go just jumped him, landing on the bridge above. Hiro fought to keep the car upright, moving forward to take the now-empty passenger seat.

“Stop the car! Baymax can take this guy-”

As Hiro leaned on the door, it was ripped away by an arm of microbots. Tadashi’s shield had shattered. Before Hiro could fall out, Baymax caught him and hefted him back into the seat.

“Seatbelts save lives,” he reminded. “Buckle up, every time.”

Tadashi let out a ragged breath, layering more shields over where the door should be. Go Go sped towards the tracks, to the sound of an oncoming train. Go Go sped up.

“Ah… Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Wasabi started, pressing against his seat and panic lacing his voice. “What are you doing?  _ What are you doing? What are you doing?” _

They drove past, the train missing them by a few seconds. Hiro watched out the door to the other side of the train, catching sight of the man in the mask watching them. Go Go turned off on another street, bringing them away from the train. 

“Did we lose him?” Honey Lemon asked, looking around for any sign of the man.

Tadashi felt the intent again, stronger than before. His heart sank to his feet.

“Look out!” Wasabi’s call was too late, the microbots already making a tunnel around the car.

“Baymax, hold on!” Tadashi called, throwing more shields around them.

Wasabi began to panic. “We’re not gonna make it!”

“We’re gonna make it!” Honey Lemon fired back.

“We’re not gonna make it!”

_ “We’re gonna make it!” _

The car broke through the tunnel, landing hard on the concrete. “We made it! Yes!”

Go Go slammed on the brakes, seeing the water before anyone else did. It was already too late. They all screamed as the car plunged into the bay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, Hiro and Tadashi don't have an Uncle Todd. Tadashi's just a sarcastic little shit.


	5. Still Here

The shields shattered as they hit the water, but still managed to protect both the car and Baymax from most of the damage. They sank to the ocean floor, the car settling with a soft thunk on the sand. Hiro struggled with his seat belt for a moment before closing his eyes and using his telekinesis to free the mechanism. All six people streamed out of the car, looking a little disoriented. Hiro quickly started pulling Baymax’s armor off with both his hands and mind. 

_ ‘Grab Baymax!’  _ The brothers weren’t sure who said it and they didn’t care. Their friends hadn’t seemed to realize that they’d heard speech underwater either. They all grappled onto the vinyl surface as Hiro pulled off the last of the armor, lifting them all to the surface.

They broke through like a breaching whale, sputtering and coughing and just relieved to be breathing  _ air _ .

“I told you we’d make it!” Honey Lemon said cheerfully. The others were still too busy  _ breathing _ to do more than stare.

“Your injuries require my attention,” Baymax said, scanning them all, “and your body temperatures are low.”

“We should get out of here,” Hiro said, shivering. Tadashi hugged him closer, trying desperately to send him his warmth.

Fred made a face, waggling his eyebrows. “I know a place.”

  
  
  
  


They shivered as they walked, all soaked to the bone. There wasn’t much talking, mostly just the occasional ‘turn here’ and ‘right over there’ from Fred. Not even Tadashi and Hiro had much to say, out loud  _ or _ silently. But Tadashi could feel Hiro’s mood shifting as they walked. He was slowly drawing into himself, and Tadashi wasn’t sure why. Tadashi fidgeted with his hat in his hands. He didn’t remember grabbing it when they were swimming out of the car, but he’d had it in his hand when they broke the surface.

The next time Tadashi looked up, they were in a fancy neighborhood.

“Where are we?” Honey Lemon asked, eyeing the nice houses and manicured lawns.

Fred said nothing, just turning and walking up another sidewalk to the steps of the biggest house on the street.

The others hung back on the sidewalk, unsure. “Fred,” Hiro whispered. “Wh-Where are you  _ going?” _

Fred turned at the door, looking back at them in confusion. “Oh.” He straightened with a grin, throwing his arms wide. “Welcome to  _ mi casa. _ That’s French for ‘front door’.”

They just blinked at him.

“It’s really…  _ not. _ ” Honey Lemon tilted her head, looking at her friend in concern.

“Listen, nitwit. A lunatic in a mask just tried to  _ kill _ us.” Go Go was shaking, but Tadashi wasn’t sure if it was the cold or her growing rage. “I’m not in the  _ mood _ for any-”

The door swung open to reveal a tall butler. “Welcome home, Master Frederick.”

Fred turned to him with a wide grin. “Heathcliff, my man!”

Go Go froze, her words lost in the incredulity of the moment. Everyone just stared at Fred and Heathcliff, hardly daring to believe what they were seeing. 

“Come on in, guys. We’ll be safe in here.” Fred turned back to the butler, raising his fist in the air between them. “Gimme some.”

They shared a fist bump, and Fred just walked in the door. They followed him one by one, only Baymax taking Heathcliff up on the offered fist. They looked around, taking in the large foyer.

“Freddie, this is your  _ house?” _ Honey Lemon spun in place, taking in the art on the walls.

“I thought you lived under a bridge,” Go Go said, eyeing the high ceiling.

Fred shrugged, leading them through a hall of family portraits. “Well, technically it belongs to my parents. They’re on a vacay on the family island. We should totally  _ go  _ sometime. Frollic.” He clapped twice, a door sliding open.

He led them through the doorway, allowing them all a moment to take in the sight.

And boy was it a  _ sight _ . It was like someone threw everything about comic book culture into a blender and then turned it into a room. As everyone else drank in the ‘view’, Hiro made a beeline for a table. The others chattered idly as Tadashi and Baymax followed the youngest Hamada. Hiro grabbed a pen and paper, starting to sketch.

“Your body temperature is still low,” Baymax warned.

“Yeah, uh-huh,” Hiro mumbled, clearly either not listening or not caring. Tadashi frowned. There was something else. Hiro held the pen too tight, his shoulders and neck tense. 

Baymax leaned forward, pressing his squishy body against Hiro’s. Hiro looked up, confused, until Baymax turned on his heater. Hiro rolled his eyes, continuing to sketch. Tadashi leaned against Baymax too, watching Hiro carefully.  _ ‘Hiro?’ _

Hiro ignored him. The rest of their friends quickly joined in on the Baymax-cuddling.

“It’s like spooning a warm marshmallow,” Fred sighed. 

Honey Lemon sighed too. “Ah, so nice.”

“Oh yeah,” Wasabi agreed. “Ah, that’s toasty.”

Go Go patted Baymax’s side appreciatively. “Good robot.”

Hiro put down the pen, putting his face in his hands. Tadashi realized that his hands were shaking. Tadashi pushed off of Baymax, the movement jostling the robot and his friends away from the small boy. “Hiro? Hiro, look at me. What’s wrong?”

Hiro just curled in on himself further, the pens and pencils rising from their cup on the table. Tadashi’s eyes widened, feeling the fear and panic and  _ anxiety _ radiating from his brother. 

“We almost  _ died _ , Tadashi.  _ You  _ almost died.” Tadashi froze, his hands on Hiro’s shoulders. You could hear a pin drop in the room. The pens rose higher, joined by the cup and probably a number of other things all over the room. “ _ Again.  _ I can’t-”

“Hiro, Hiro  _ look at me. _ ” When he finally looked up, Tadashi squeezed his shoulders. “I’m here. I’m fine. I told you, I’m not leaving you again, alright? Rule number three.”

“Hamada brothers always trust each other,” Hiro mumbled.

“Right, Hiro. We’re okay. I’m not going anywhere.” Tadashi spared another glance at the pens, watching them slowly fall back towards the table. He heard the gentle squeak of vinyl approaching.

“Tadashi, your brain waves have increased and are affecting Hiro’s. Is this intentional?”

The Hamadas froze. Tadashi let go of Hiro’s shoulders like he burned.

Tadashi’s eyes widened, looking between his brother and his robot. He wasn’t using any shields, so why would Baymax think he was using his powers? “But, I wasn’t… was I?” Hiro took a step towards him and Tadashi flicked a hand up, making a shield between them. “No, Hiro. I don’t know-”

“What were you trying to do?” Hiro’s calm voice made him stop talking. How could he be so calm? Tadashi had just asked his little brother to  _ trust  _ him while he was messing with his  _ head! _

“You were starting to panic,” he said, stammering a little. “I was just trying to help you calm down like I always do.”

Hiro’s eyes widened a little, still staring at him through the rippling air. “Define ‘always’.”

Tadashi ran his hands through his hair, exasperated. “I don’t know, Hiro,  _ always! _ Ever since…” His eyes widened. “Ever since we were kids,” he breathed.

Hiro grinned at him, a real grin. “How’s your head?”

Tadashi blinked. “It’s… fine. Normal.” He let the shield fall. “Holy  _ shit _ , Hiro.”

Hiro skipped forward, punching him in the shoulder. “You’ve been holding out on me!”

“I have detected similar readings before.” The boys turned back to Baymax, distracted. “Before and during the attack in the warehouse, your activity was fluctuating rapidly. Every time the man in the mask got ready to attack, your brain started to show signs of ‘ability usage’.”

Tadashi looked down at the carpet, scrunching up his face in thought. What was the link? What did they all have in common? Baymax said he had been doing it just before every attack.  _ Intent, _ he realized. He’d always been able to tell when someone was about to do something, he could always read what they were feeling easily. He’d never realized it before, but it was beyond normal limits.

“Empathy,” he said finally, catching Hiro’s eye. “Hiro, I’m an  _ empath _ .”

There was a sudden and unholy screech. Hiro and Tadashi tensed, the former creating a floating army out of writing implements and the latter setting a shield between them and the noise. What they saw? Fred, his mouth covered by Go Go’s hands, with Honey Lemon and Wasabi staring at them with wide eyes.

Hiro immediately dropped the pens, letting them fall uselessly to the ground. Tadashi shattered the shield, returning the air between them to its natural state.

“H-hey, guys.” Hiro tried, kicking the carpet. “What’s, uhh… what’s up?”

Tadashi just closed his eyes in a silent ‘ _ kill me now _ ’.

_ ‘Nope, if I have to live through this, so do you.’ _

“God damn it,” he muttered. Hiro jabbed him in the side with his elbow.

“You said that out loud, Tadashi,” he hissed.

“I  _ know,  _ Hiro. There’s not much point in the silence anymore.”

“Uh, guys?” Wasabi said quietly. “Still here.”

Fred managed to free himself from Go Go’s muffling. “ _ Powers!”  _ he cried. “You two have  _ POWERS!”  _ He jumped forward, moving too fast too quickly. Tadashi threw up a small barrier at the edge of his personal space, immediately followed by the ‘thunk’ of Fred running into it.

“Personal space, Fred,” Tadashi chided.

“That… thing that you’re doing,” Go Go started, taking a step closer. “I kept seeing it in the car. I thought it was just… a trick of the light or something. What was that?”

Tadashi sighed. “Shielding. I can make these… barriers, I don’t know. I was trying to shield the car. Between you and the microbots, I had my work cut out for me.”

Go Go turned, pointing at Hiro. “And  _ you! _ How did you do that? With the pens?”

Hiro smirked. “The same way I pressed the buttons on your controller to let Fred win.” He pointed to his head, his grin taking a maniacal edge. “ _ With my mind _ .”

Fred looked almost beside himself with glee. Wasabi looked like he was about to pass out. Honey Lemon just looked like she was in shock. Hiro’s grin grew. Tadashi caught the look and pointed at Hiro sharply.

“Do  _ not _ -”

_ ‘We can do this too!’ _

The room gasped, hearing Hiro’s voice in their heads without him actually speaking.

“-Unbelievable! Hiro!” Tadashi threw his hands up in the air.

_ ‘Pretty cool, huh?’ _

“Hiro Hamada, cut it out. You’ll freak them out!”

Hiro just grinned up at his brother. “I think we’re  _ well _ beyond that, Tadashi. What do you think, Baymax?”

“Wasabi and Honey Lemon are exhibiting signs of shock.”

Hiro winced, and Tadashi slapped him upside the head.

Go Go shook her head. “Explain.  _ Now _ .”

Tadashi and Hiro fessed up with the real story of what happened at the showcase. They told them about testing their powers and about chasing Baymax.

Their friends just slumped on the couch in varying stages of concern, shock, and disbelief. Now that Tadashi knew what he was capable of, he recognized that he was reading their emotions. He closed his eyes in thought. Baymax said that he’d been affecting Hiro when he was trying to calm him down. What if he could help everyone else? He slowly brought the mood of the room back to healthy levels. It was hard to influence the emotions without outright changing them, but he did it anyway. He didn’t feel comfortable forcing a change and playing with them like that, even if it was to help out.

They all started to talk a bit, trying to wrap their heads around it all. Tadashi helped where he could, telling them what they knew and what they guessed. 

By the time they’d sort-of accepted it, Hiro was done drawing. He held the paper up for everyone to see. “Does this symbol mean anything to you guys?”

Tadashi narrowed his eyes. He’d seen it before, but he couldn’t place it.

“Yes!” Fred said excitedly. “It’s a bird!”

“No!” Hiro shook his head, a small smile appearing for a moment before it was gone. “The guy in the mask was carrying something with  _ this  _ symbol on it.”

Tadashi’s eyes widened. “Hiro, the  _ warehouse _ . It was on that board, remember?”

“Apprehending the man in the mask will improve their emotional states,” Baymax said, looking at the Nerd Crew.

“Appre _ hend _ him?” Go Go said, pulling back a few steps to look at them critically. “We don’t even know who he  _ is _ .”

“I have a theory.” Fred gave them his best devilish grin. He started handing out comic books like evidence, describing the main villains in each and their secret identities.

“Just get to the point!” Go Go implored.

“The man in the mask who attacked us is none other than…” He waved his hand dramatically, turning on the TV. “ _ Viola! _ Alistair Krei.”

As they continued talking about it, Tadashi tuned out, focusing instead on how he could feel Hiro’s anxiety rising. 

“His blood type is AB-negative. Cholesterol levels are-”

“Baymax, you  _ scanned _ him?” Hiro surged forward, watching Baymax with wide eyes.

“I am programmed to assess everyone’s healthcare needs.”

Hiro laughed, but it didn’t feel right. Tadashi tensed up. “I can use the data in your scan to find him.” Hiro began to bounce around a little, a wild light in his eyes. Baymax tilted his head at him. 

“Uh, you’d have to scan everyone in San Fransokyo. That might take, I don’t know,  _ forever?”  _ Go Go waved her comic, watching Hiro.

“No, no, no, no,” Hiro said, pacing the room. “I just have to look for another angle.”

That proud grin was back as Tadashi watched his little brother. Clearly he’d taken  _ some _ of his advice to heart. Hiro stopped in front of one of Fred’s action figures. “Got it! We’ll just have to scan the whole city at the same time!” Hiro turned to Tadashi with bright eyes. “We just have to upgrade Baymax’s sensor.”

He turned around, looking at all of them in turn. “Actually, if we’re gonna catch this guy, I need to upgrade  _ all _ of you.”

Tadashi choked a little. “What?”

“Upgrade  _ who _ now?” Wasabi glanced at Tadashi, eyes uncertain.

“Those who suffer a loss require support from friends and loved ones,” Baymax said calmly, watching the group.

Fred laughed, almost shaking with excitement. “Oh, okay. I like where this is heading!”

Wasabi leaned forward, equal parts pleading and reasoning. “We can’t go against that guy! We’re  _ nerds!” _

“Look, we want to help,” Honey Lemon said, earnest and soft. “But we’re just…  _ us. _ ”

“No,” Hiro insisted, stepping up onto the couch. He looked up at a scroll of heroes on the wall. “You can be  _ way _ more.”

Go Go stood up, cracking her knuckles. “Professor Callaghan was the best teacher I ever had. I’m in.”

“Can you feel it? You guys, do you feel this? Our origin story begins!” Fred pumped his fists. “We’re gonna be superheroes!”

The next hour flew by as Hiro and Tadashi talked to an over-eager Fred about their abilities. When Hiro had said he wanted to ‘upgrade everyone’, Fred had been hoping that they could give him powers of his own. The brothers had to break it to him that it didn’t really work that way. Now that the cat was out of the bag, Tadashi asked them to help figure out how and why he and Hiro had somehow developed their abilities.

After a lot of discussion and questions, they reasoned that it was somehow triggered because of the high stress of their situations. They noted that they’d both been trying to protect each other when it happened, but none of them were comfortable calling any of those ‘rules’. For all they knew, Tadashi and Hiro were born with the abilities and just never realized it, reaching for them instinctively when in danger. Tadashi was evidence of the possibility since his empathic powers didn’t seem to have an origin, and he had been passively using them for most of his life. The telepathy had them a little stumped, but Fred insisted it was probably a side effect of the close bond the brothers had, coupled with the fact they both had ESP.

Tadashi had a silent conversation with Hiro about what was still freaking him out. While Hiro’s anxiety had mostly melted away by the time they had a chance to ‘talk’, it was still worrying. It didn’t take much prodding for Hiro to fess up. After their chase through the city, Hiro had realized that they couldn’t do anything as they were. Their efforts would get them killed. With the upgrades he had in mind, he reasoned they might actually be able to pull it off.

After another hour or so, they all called it a night and headed home. They agreed to meet up at the Hamada Garage the next day to get started on ‘upgrades’. The brothers carefully snuck back into their house, Aunt Cass still none the wiser.


	6. Upgrades

They met in the Hamadas’ garage the next morning. After a quick scan, Hiro had all the measurements he needed to make everyone armor. They spent an hour analyzing the footage Baymax had taken from their encounters with the masked man, looking for anything that could give them an advantage.

“The neurotransmitter must be in his mask.” Hiro brought up a model of the mask on the display, spinning it around. “We get the mask, and he can’t control the bots. Game over.”

The next day was spent getting Hiro acquainted with everyone’s tech. He figured that it would be easiest to give their suits abilities and weapons that they were familiar with. With their inputs, he started working on the designs, printing and assembling them as quickly as he could. The end of the weekend meant that the Nerd Crew had to go back to school, but Hiro stayed home from his usual shadowing to work.

The first suit to be ready was Honey Lemon’s. They met at Fred’s to test it out, pitting her against a very unenthusiastic Heathcliff. Her suit was pink and orange, complete with a snug but resistant set of underclothes. Her helmet wasn’t far off from a sleek bike helmet, only built for protection and aesthetics rather than for aerodynamics. It had two long ears that doubled as antennae for the comms system. She typed away easily at the screen of her orange chem-purse, the strap serving as a conveyor belt for the assembly line within the orange ‘bag’. With her history in softball, her aim was good. Poor Heathcliff never stood a chance. Not that he tried, anyway.

Go Go’s suit was ready next. Hiro had thrown out the bike entirely, condensing her tech into four yellow and red disks. Her helmet _was_ built for speed, ditching the tall ears in favor of a long protrusion at the back. Go Go had more armor along her shoulders, arms, and hands than Honey Lemon did, needing the extra protection in case she wiped out at high speeds. Her gloves and boots housed the suspension tech for the disks, the two disks at her feet having the ability to separate and give her two smaller, throwable disks. Her undersuit was sleek and black, small red detailing for style.

Hiro started on Baymax’s suit next, needing more time to manufacture all the parts for the big guy than for the others. He only worked on it when no one else was around, not even letting Tadashi have a look at the designs, much to his brother’s exasperation. He kept making tweaks and alterations to make it easier to put on and take off.

Fred’s suit was an entire ordeal of its own. Since Fred didn’t have tech to work with, they had to start from the ground up. The upside was that Fred knew _exactly_ what he wanted. Before long, Fred had been transformed into a blue kaiju, complete with super-jumping capacity and flame-breath. _That_ had taken a while to implement safely. His visor was disguised as one of the suit’s three eyes, set in the center of the hood.

Wasabi’s suit was next to be completed and _boy_ was it fun to make. His helmet was replaced with a slim visor-and-headset variation, letting his hair fly free. Hiro broke up the norm of the rest of the suits, giving Wasabi a black undershirt and loose blue pants that tucked into long black socks. His green armor covered his shoulders and his chest, segmenting farther down his torso than most of the others’. He didn’t have any specially reinforced shoes like Go Go or Fred, just a simple pair of traditional sandals. The fun though? That was had while making the plasma blades in Wasabi’s gauntlets. With a flick of his hands, Wasabi could deploy long plasma blades that could cut through most anything. A simple flick of the hand was all it needed to reactivate the safety and turn them off. When Hiro and Wasabi went in for a high-five at the end of training though, Tadashi nearly had a heart attack. The shield was barely up before the other two noticed on their own, and Wasabi turned off the blades.

Tadashi’s suit had been somewhat difficult to come up with. Everyone else had either their tech or tech that was tailored specifically to them. Tadashi’s tech was _Baymax,_ and he was already taken as an independent member of the team. Not to mention that Hiro had privately claimed Baymax and his services for himself. In the end, Tadashi and Hiro decided something new had to be done.

While Tadashi knew karate and a few other bits and pieces of various martial arts techniques, neither of the brothers were too keen on the idea of him going out empty-handed. Hiro managed to make a hoverboard by using similar tech to Baymax’s thrusters, just applied a little differently. It was a sleek piece of tech, built to hold three times Tadashi’s weight and sturdy enough to take hits. Hiro built a sort of call system into it that was linked to the gloves, giving Tadashi the ability to direct it though little hand motions. This way, he was able to use the board as an extension of himself, using it to get in hits even when he wasn’t attached to it.

His armor was darker than the rest of the team’s, primarily black and gray instead of some other bright color. He had a tight black undershirt and sturdy black pants under a long black coat. The detailing on the black fabric and carbon-fiber was a silvery white, evident on the outside edges of his shoulder pads and the buttons that kept the jacket closed under his chestplate. He had long, stiff boots that were well suited for martial arts, as well as protective against both blows and the windshear of the hoverboard. His helmet was not _quite_ a helmet, but still covered more of his head than Wasabi’s did. The black helmet hugged the back of his head but kept the hair on top free, Hiro citing that it just looked cooler that way. If Tadashi didn’t have his shields, he might have argued against it.

When the time finally came to unveil Baymax’s suit to the others, Hiro called them all to Fred’s, telling them to bring their suits. Hiro and Tadashi were huddled with Baymax around the corner from their friends. They were both already geared up, but the younger Hamada had been guarding the bag with Baymax’s gear like a jealous dragon. The Nerd Crew was chatting excitedly as they lounged on the patio furniture out of sight.

_‘You wanna help me get him suited up?’_ Hiro grinned up at Tadashi, patting the very large floating bag beside him.

Tadashi’s smile grew. _‘About time you let me see what you’ve been working on, little brother. He is_ my _bot, you know.’_

Hiro shrugged, looking more smug. _‘I told you I’d show you first, didn’t I?’_

Tadashi snorted. ‘ _I’m not really sure five minutes in advance qualifies, Hiro.’_ He pulled on the zipper, opening up the cavernous bag to reveal shiny red armor. Tadashi’s grin grew, noticing that the cherry-red carbon fiber was detailed in purple, while Hiro’s purple armor was detailed in the same cherry-red. _‘What’s with the exposed shins anyway, Hiro? Would it really kill you to make pants that went to your shoes like the rest of us?’_

The two started pulling out the armor plates and putting them together on Baymax. Tadashi idly noted how heavy the backplates were. Hiro sighed. _‘It’ll make it less obvious when I hit a growth spurt. That’s why my shirt is so loose too, so I don’t have to tailor my under-armor every few months.’_

_‘Like you’ll grow fast enough for that to even be a problem,’_ Tadashi joked, earning a sharp elbow jab for his efforts. After a few more moments Baymax was suited up in his full glory, looking _far_ less huggable than he had in the original suit. It was sleek and intimidating, not to mention added some length to his arms and legs.

_‘He’s ready,’_ Hiro said silently, grinning up at his brother. _‘Let’s go knock their socks off, yeah?’_

Hiro ran around the corner, Tadashi only a few steps behind. “Hey guys,” he called. “Check this out.” They got up and followed the Hamadas farther into the yard until they could finally see Baymax. Hiro gestured proudly. “I’d like to introduce, Baymax 2.0.”

Baymax was striking a pose, the warm evening sun basking him in all of it’s fiery glory. He was truly imposing, something that looked like it was made for battle. That thought made Tadashi feel a little conflicted about the situation, but he pushed it away.

Fred gasped. “He’s _glorious._ ”

Baymax dropped the strong pose, waving his hand in greeting. Tadashi grinned, glad to see some of the Healthcare Baymax shine through Super-Hero Baymax’s exterior. “Hello,” Baymax chimed, immediately getting distracted by a passing butterfly. He went to chase after it, prompting Hiro to run and stop him.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… Hold up, _focus_ …” Hiro stood in front of Baymax, blocking his path. He glanced between the robot and the others. “Show ‘em what you got, buddy.” When Baymax just blinked at him, Hiro turned and posed. “The fist, show them the fist.”

Baymax mimicked the stance, holding his fist out. Hiro scampered behind him, excited.

“Ba-da-la-la-la-la.”

Hiro chuckled nervously, glancing back at his friends and his brother. “No, not that. The thing, the other thing.”

Baymax resumed his stance, straightening his arm. Little flaps came out behind his fist, revealing thrusters spewing purple flame. Hiro was practically _vibrating_ at the excitement of it. The fist shot from Baymax’s arm, soaring through the air towards the stone wall at the edge of the garden.

By the time Tadashi realized what was about to happen, it was too late to call up any shields that could stop it. The fist punched through a stone statue and then through the wall behind it, leaving a gaping hole and chunks of masonry everywhere.

Fred was bouncing and clapping. “Rocket fist make Freddie so happy,” he cried softly, clearly caring more about how _awesome_ it was than about the damage to his property. The rocket returned, nestling back into Baymax’s arm like it had never gone anywhere to begin with.

“That’s just _one_ of his new upgrades!” Hiro turned back to Baymax, a face-splitting grin plastered on his face. “Baymax, wings.”

Large red wings unfolded from somewhere in Baymax’s armor; seamless, sleek, and elegant. Baymax tried to turn to look at them, looking much like an animal trying to chase its own tail. Hiro ran around behind him, climbing up the bot’s legs to reach the magnetic pads on his back. Now fully anchored, he peered out from over Baymax’s shoulders. “Thrusters,” he commanded, looking giddy as he heard them firing up.

Baymax lifted a few feet off the ground, using his arms to steady himself and keep his balance. “I fail to see how flying makes me a better healthcare companion,” he said, looking over his shoulder at his ‘pilot’.

Hiro shook his head, sticking his tongue back in his mouth. “I fail to see how _you_ fail to see that it’s _awesome!”_ He pointed up into the sky, looking like he was about to explode with excitement. “Full thrust!”

Baymax fell chest-first onto the grass with a loud thunk, shaking the ground. Hiro looked at the others in front of him in alarm. _‘Oh no,’_ he thought.

Tadashi threw a shield up around himself and his friends, already knowing exactly what was about to happen. Sure enough, Baymax’s thrusters came back online and sent the two skimming over the ground, missing Fred and the stone railing behind him by mere feet. They all watched in shock and horror as Hiro and Baymax flew around like a balloon releasing its air. They ducked, the duo sailing low over their heads and through the curved stone pillars further in the garden. Hiro screamed as Baymax struggled in the sky.

Tadashi snapped from his shock, flicking his wrist to summon his hoverboard. He hopped on, magnetically anchoring himself to it like Hiro had to Baymax and sped off after them. Unlike Hiro and Baymax, he’d actually _practiced_ flying. He may not be able to _stop_ them, but he could at least try to mitigate the damage.

Hiro and Baymax flailed over the street, now flying low above the city. Tadashi noted the people on the street as he chased after them. _‘Drawing a_ lot _of attention, little brother!’_

_‘You think I don’t know that?’_ Hiro cried back, his mental voice almost shrill with alarm. “Steady big guy,” he called to Baymax, adjusting his position on the robot’s back. Now settled lower on the robot’s back, he felt less like he was about to die. “Look, let’s just take this slow.”

Tadashi noticed the giant cat in their path before they did. _‘Hiro, look out!’_

Hiro looked up and screamed. They were flying rapidly towards a large spinning cat with a knife on top of some local business’ roof. “Up, up, up, up, up!” he cried. “Thrust, thrust, thrust!”

They flailed at the last second, shooting straight up in the air about a foot and a half from impact.

Tadashi cursed, lowering himself on his hoverboard and going up after them, albeit on a gentler slope.

Hiro was screaming again, not that Tadashi could blame him. “Too much thrust! Too much thrust! _Too much thrust!”_

Tadashi watched as Baymax’s thrusters shut off and disappeared into his boots. _‘Oh no.’_

Baymax’s upwards acceleration dropped to zero, carried only by his upward and forward momentum. The parabola would have made any mathematician proud. The duo sailed over one of the towers of the Torii Gate Bridge, quickly beginning to lose altitude.

Tadashi watched as they began to fall towards the busy traffic on the bridge as Hiro shot more rapid-fire exclamations of ‘no’. Tadashi started shielding them, but there wasn’t much he could do about the cars aside from make a blanket shield and hope they didn’t break through.

“Back on! Back on!” Hiro called, tugging on Baymax’s back like he could personally drag Baymax back up into the sky. He may have been telekinetic, but his powers had their limits. Baymax’s thrusters came back on about three feet from the asphalt, sailing up and over the vehicles by a narrow margin.

Tadashi breathed a small sigh of relief, following about a hundred feet back. Hiro managed to get Baymax to fly up and avoid a van, putting them on course for collision with the bridge’s second tower. Baymax skipped off of the metal, cracking the shield. He slowed down at the top and landed shakily on the tower. His wings folded in and Hiro relaxed, letting out a giant breath. Tadashi caught up with them, bringing his board to a steady hover next to them. 

“Oh man!” Hiro exclaimed breathlessly, looking at his brother with wide eyes. He looked around, taking in the view of the skyline. “Maybe… Maybe enough flying for today.”

Tadashi exhaled with a mighty huff, glaring incredulously at the two of them. “What do you say?” Hiro continued, straightening his helmet.

“Your neurotransmitter levels are rising steadily,” Baymax said, looking between his two patients. Tadashi sputtered, his hoverboard shifting to try and account for his change in balance. He drifted closer.

Hiro leaned away from Baymax, looking at him in growing fear. “Which means what?”

Baymax just looked straight ahead. “The treatment is working.”

“It was on purpose,” Tadashi muttered. “He made himself into a rollercoaster.” He shook his head, half-glaring at the other two. “I’ve been chasing your asses across San Fransokyo, worried out of my _mind_ , and it was just Baymax’s latest form of treatment.”

Hiro shot him an alarmed glance before noticing that Baymax had started to slowly pitch over the side of the bridge. “Oh, no!” he cried, looking down at the water below. Far, far below.

Tadashi lurched forward, catching Baymax’s hand. All it did was tow him after them. Hiro started rapid-firing ‘no’s again as they plunged head-first towards the water below.

“Whoa, Baymax!” Hiro drew out the last vowel, his eyes locked on the fast-approaching waves.

Tadashi was pushing the hoverboard to its limits, trying desperately to slow their fall before remembering that Baymax had been doing this on purpose. He let go of the robot, chasing them down through the air. Baymax’s wings sprang back out and his thrusters came back online, bringing them to a wonderful elevation change of zero just above the water. Tadashi put on a burst of speed, latching onto the base of Baymax’s wing before he started going too fast for the hoverboard to keep up.

Tadashi grinned at Hiro, holding his still-attached board against Baymax as they flew over the bay. _‘Hiro, you can open your eyes now,’_ he said, silent laughter lacing the mental voice.

Hiro gasped, letting out the breath he’d been holding. He looked around, realizing they were flying steadily just above the water, leaving a small wake behind them. He noticed Tadashi clinging to Baymax at his side, watching the world around them with a look of fierce joy on his face. Realizing that they were really, _truly_ flying, Hiro let out a nearly-delirious laugh. “Yes!”

Tadashi grinned at him and joined in with a laugh of his own.

“Whoo!”

Baymax shifted in the air before putting on a new burst of speed, flattening the brothers against his back for a moment. They sailed low over the city, bobbing and weaving through the gentle hills. They rolled through the air, snaking through the tall high-rises in the commercial district of San Fransokyo. Baymax flew in smooth loops over the overpasses, doing little tricks for his thrilled patients.

Baymax brought them in over a train, ducking into the tunnel before it did. Tadashi and Hiro looked back, grinning and waving at the conductor before Baymax took off again, back out of the tunnel and into the wide sky. They circled around a rounded glass skyscraper, Tadashi and Hiro taking a moment to watch their reflections as they soared through the air. Baymax changed their course, bringing them along the steel cable of a floating koi turbine. He stretched out his large hand, letting it skim the cable for a moment before pulling away.

Now looping above the fish and back down again, the three exchanged a glance. Baymax started weaving through the turbines, the boys leaning and shifting with each movement. They spun after the last one before finally straightening out and heading back towards the Torii Gate Bridge. Tadashi and Hiro let out a few whoops, settling in to enjoy the rest of the flight.


	7. Unease

Tadashi and Hiro sat on top of a koi turbine with Baymax, their feet swaying back and forth as they gazed over the city. Baymax watched them in the fading light, slowly mimicking their motions. Hiro settled back farther, letting out an exhilarated sigh. 

“That was…” he trailed off, not quite finding a word that quite put it to justice. Tadashi smiled down at him, knowing  _ exactly _ what he meant.

Baymax peered down at them both. “Sick.” They looked up at him, a little surprised. He turned to look back at the horizon. “It is just an expression.”

Tadashi chuckled. “That’s… that’s right, buddy.” It was amazing to see how much Baymax was evolving, using the code he’d built to adapt to the people around him. It was like watching him develop a little bit of a personality of his own.

“I am never taking the bus again,” Hiro said softly, watching the way the light painted the clouds as the sun set. 

Baymax turned to look at them again, the shuttering in his eyes indicative of a scan. “Your emotional states have improved. I can deactivate if you are satisfied with your care.”

Hiro and Tadashi looked up at him in surprise. “What?” Hiro blinked, shaking his head. “No, I don’t want you to deactivate.” He stood up, moving in front of Baymax. “We still have to find that guy.”

It didn’t take Tadashi’s empathic abilities to know what Hiro was feeling. Baymax was  _ more _ than just a means to make them feel better. He was every bit a part of their family and their new team now as anyone else.

Hiro glanced out at the rest of the world, gesturing. “So, fire up that super-sensor.”

Baymax stood up carefully, turning his head to face the rest of the city. Tadashi stood up too and moved to stand beside his brother. Baymax’s visor lit up for a moment as he slowly panned his head.

“Functionality improved. One thousand percent increase in range.” Baymax beeped softly, and he held up his hand to point out to the water. “I have found a match… on that island.”

The pleasant, warm fuzzy feelings of the day’s flight was gone, replaced with a sort of low anxiety that curled in the pit of Tadashi’s stomach. The flight back to the Fredrickson estate had been straightforward and without embellishment, but both Hamada brothers tried to use the opportunity to distract themselves from their thoughts. The scenery helped, but only so much.

Their friends were happy to see them return alive and in one piece, but even their moods developed a small edge when they told them that the scanner worked. They’d located Yokai.

Hiro wasn’t convinced that the man in the mask was really Krei, so Fred had decided to give their ‘super-villain’ a name. It was somewhat fitting, Tadashi supposed, that the wraith-like man be named after that particular slice of Japanese folklore. Yokai were monsters, spirits, and demons. The man fit the bill.

It had taken a little while to get it figured out, but by the time dusk began to settle, they were flying over San Fransokyo once again, this time as a team. Go Go and Honey Lemon joined Hiro on Baymax’s back, holding on to the wings on either side of the boy. Baymax was holding Fred by the hood in his large left fist, leaving the enthusiastic nerd to strike a ridiculous pose as they flew. Wasabi was clinging desperately to Baymax’s right arm.

Go Go looked out at the city appreciatively. “Killer view,” she mused. Honey Lemon shot her a shaky smile. The taller woman thought it was pretty too, but wasn’t quite as comfortable in the air yet.

“Yeah,” Wasabi agreed, his voice a little higher than usual. “If I… if I wasn’t terrified of heights, I’d probably love this.” He shifted, trying to strengthen his hold. He glanced down, his eyes wide and fearful. “But I’m terrified of heights, so I don’t love it.” Wasabi buried his face against Baymax’s red armor, scrunching his eyes shut.

Tadashi laughed quietly. They’d turned on their comms, so he was pretty sure everyone heard it anyway. He was gliding on his hoverboard alongside them, easily keeping pace. With so many people who weren’t secured with magnets, Baymax didn’t go anywhere near as fast as he had earlier. Besides, the situation as it was kept Baymax’s weight more evenly balanced. Tadashi  _ had  _ noticed during their joyride that Baymax was constantly correcting their path on account of Tadashi’s weight off to the side.

Tadashi wrapped a shield around Wasabi, allowing his friends to feel it as it hugged him closer to Baymax’s arm. The man sighed in relief, shooting Tadashi a grateful glance. With the fear of slipping and falling now negated, Wasabi was able to better focus on the crippling fear of them crashing instead.

They circled the edge of the island as they approached, each person scanning the terrain for signs of people.

“There!” Hiro pointed at a building on one edge of the rocky shoreline. “Baymax, take us in.”

Tadashi landed inside the fenced dock first, watching as Baymax made his slow descent. He chuckled when the robot dropped Fred, the latter bouncing excitedly on the springy feet of his suit. Baymax smoothly planted the fist he’d freed on the ground, making it easier for the others to detach. Go Go hopped over the top of his shoulder to the concrete. Honey Lemon slid carefully off of his back, and Hiro just jumped casually off of Baymax’s back and over his head like he was a damn springboard. Tadashi let Wasabi’s shield go, and the man graciously peeled himself from Baymax’s arm.

“Awesome!” Fred pumped his fists in the air, his eyes sparkling as he turned to look at the rest of them. “Our first landing together as a team.”

Everyone looked around them, taking in the abandoned crates and the signs of disuse. Tadashi kept his senses outstretched for any sign of discovery. He’d been getting better at doing that lately.

“Guys, come on,” Hiro whispered, motioning them to follow him. He settled a little lower to the ground and made his way to the nearest door.

Wasabi pointed his thumb at one of the signs on the fence. “‘Quarantine’? Do you people know what  _ ‘quarantine’ _ means?” Tadashi glanced back at his friend with a reassuring smile.

“‘Quarantine.’ Enforced isolation to prevent contamination that could lead to disease or, in some cases, death.” Baymax’s replied, finger high in the air, waddling placidly after the group.

“Oh! There’s a skull face on this one,” Wasabi said cheerfully. “A  _ skull  _ face!” The second time was much less cheerful.

The others ignored him, still following Hiro around the corner. “Be ready,” he cautioned. “He could be anywhere.”

There was a rustle from behind them and the group screamed, turning to face the noise. Tadashi threw up a shield around Hiro, knowing he didn’t have any weapons to defend himself with, and sank into a defensive ready position. Wasabi activated his blades, waving them frantically in front of his face. Honey Lemon screwed her eyes shut and lobbed a few chem-balls towards the source of the sound. Fred started breathing fire everywhere, and Go Go threw her disks. By the time the smoke cleared and Baymax had managed to turn around, there was a ring of carnage surrounding a very harmless and unhurt bird. It cooed and flew away.

Everyone breathed again and relaxed out of their stances. “Well,” Honey Lemon said with a small chuckle. “At least we know our gear works.”

They looked back to the door, debating for a moment what to do about it. It looked like a heavy steel affair, more like a bulkhead door of a ship than anything else. Eventually it was decided that Wasabi was the best fit for the job. He slowly cut a hole in the door, growing more and more frustrated when it became clear that a perfect circle was something he just couldn’t do.  _ Yet _ , he assured them. Soon the metal fell away with a loud crash, ringing through the halls of the facility. Tadashi ‘listened’ harder, trying to reach out and feel for any sign that Yokai had heard. The moved slowly though the opening, creeping quietly down the hallway. Well,  _ almost _ quietly.

_ “Seven intrepid friends, led by Fred, their leader, Fred.” _

Fred’s soft singing was largely ignored, but Wasabi was clearly growing more and more agitated. “Fred?”

“Hm?”

“I will laser-hand you in the face.”

Hiro waved his hand sharply. “Guys.  _ Shh. _ ”

Wasabi’s mouth dropped open, watching Hiro like a kid who’d just been told off by their parent for something their sibling did. Tadashi snickered.

Hiro looked up. “Any sign of him, Baymax?”

“This structure is interfering with my sensor.”

“Perfect,” Wasabi sighed. “The robot’s broken.”

Tadashi paused as the others kept walking, turning to face the source of the emotion he’d felt. He spotted Honey Lemon just behind him, peering through a door. “Uh, guys?” she called softly, not bothering to tear her eyes away. “You might want to see this.”

Tadashi helped her push the heavy door open, and they all filed inside. They were in some kind of large room, the very tall ceiling and far walls containing warped metal tracks. There was some kind of broken machine to the right on the room, a mangled circle of metal and wires.

“What do you think it is, genius?” Go Go asked quietly, glancing at Hiro.

“I-I’m not sure, but look.” He pointed towards another piece of machine to the left, lit by a hole in the ceiling. The same symbol that Hiro had drawn was sitting on the bottom edge, white and red on gray metal.

“Hiro,” Tadashi called softly. He motioned to a small deck behind them that led to another room, enclosed by what looked like were once the frames to glass windows. Baymax confirmed it was empty with a scan and opened the door carefully. They wandered in, looking around at what looked to have once been a control room. Hiro paused, tapping a button on his helmet to get rid of his visor.

A large red screen glowed in the back of the small room, featuring another one of the black bird symbols. Hiro walked up to it and tapped a key on the dash in front of it. The red screen blinked away, leaving nine camera feeds in their place. All but one were empty, their cameras unresponsive. One was frozen, showing Alistair Krei in the control room with a bunch of people in white coats and some in military uniforms.

The others huddled behind him as he rewound the footage. The camera feeds came back to life, scrubbing backwards through time at high speeds. Hiro pressed play again, and they saw the room as it once was. Krei walked down a metal catwalk with a few military people trailing behind them as the latter claimed that they’d done the impossible. Project Silent Sparrow, he said; teleportation. The two rings powered on, and Hiro realized they weren’t just machine frames. They were the  _ portals _ . Krei borrowed a hat and tossed it through and it came out the other portal a moment later where it was caught by a scientist on a scissor lift. They threw it back, and it was returned to its owner.

Krei led them back to the control room and introduced them to a young woman getting into a pod that was set on the track in front of the left portal. They watched Abigail settle in through her pod’s camera, confident and ready to face whatever was next. Tadashi felt the nerd crew’s mood plummet. A scientist mentioned an irregularity in some readings, but Krei waved it off. Tadashi watched Abigail brace for the movement of the pod, something in her face striking him as familiar. The way her eyebrows pinched over pale blue eyes reminded him of someone, but he couldn’t place it.

The pod disappeared into the portal and alarms began to blare. A technician called for abort,  _ field breach _ , he said. The pod didn’t come out the other side, and the portal Abigail should have come from began to shake, the frame glowing and melting. There was an explosion, knocking out a few cameras. Krei took command of one of the keyboards, typing frantically. The left portal began to suck in the room like a black hole. Three more cameras were lost, sucked into the portal. The technicians braced themselves against the desks in front of them as the room stumbled forward. They were getting sucked in. The glass windows shattered, glass flying towards the portal. Krei shut down the portal and the head military man began to yell, ordering the project dismantled and the island quarantined. Having seen enough, they paused the footage.

“The government shut down Krei’s experiment,” Hiro said quietly.

“And he’s using  _ your _ microbots to steal  _ his _ machine back,” Honey Lemon finished.

Tadashi blinked, only half listening. Something about this didn’t feel right. What reason would Krei have to do that? And there was some other feeling nagging at the back of his mind, something that started while he was focused on the footage. 

Hiro’s eyes widened. “Krei is the guy in the mask.”

Tadashi was no longer listening, straightening up. Something was  _ wrong, _ what- 

His brain slammed to a stop, and he stumbled a step back. He’d been careless. Yokai knew they were there, and he had for a while. Tadashi just hadn’t been paying attention. He threw out the strongest shield he could, praying it would be enough. At the same time, he saw Baymax turn his head as Tadashi reacted, looking behind them all.

“Oh, no.”

The rest of the team spun around to see Yokai in the portal room behind them, a large chunk of concrete held high above his head. Tadashi layered on more shields, the edges of his vision fuzzing.  _ He had to protect them _ .

The sound of stone on metal that filled the air as the concrete blasted through the control room was the last thing that Tadashi heard before the world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasabi and Baymax's conversation about Quarantine has never felt so relevant. Stay safe, guys!


	8. Akuma

Baymax’s visor lit up, the light cutting through the darkness under the rubble. Hiro looked through the dusty air at his friends as they coughed. Five faces looked back, eyes wide behind their visors. Baymax shifted and pushed the concrete above them higher so that they had more room to move. Hiro stood up, his voice still croaky from the dust.

“Baymax, get us out of here.”

Honey Lemon, Go Go, Wasabi, and Fred stood too, allowing Hiro a better look at them. They were all fine. Hiro froze. There were only six people. Where was Tadashi?

Baymax’s rocket fist punched through the rubble penning them in, scattering the rock everywhere. They were free, but Hiro’s blood was cold.

Yokai turned at the sound, his microbots coiling around the last piece of the left portal. Standing in the rubble were six bright figures, all staring at him and looking ready for a fight.

“Go for the transmitter,” Hiro started, looking around frantically. “Behind his mask!”

Yokai rolled his body like he was rolling his eyes a thousand times over before sending another stream of microbots to throw more concrete. Baymax tried to catch it but the force knocked him back, scattering the others like bowling pins. Hiro couldn’t help but notice the severe lack of shielding.

_ ‘Tadashi!'  _ Hiro called out in his mind, desperation and fear lacing his mental voice. He was met with silence.

Hiro scrambled after Baymax, climbing over the new mountain of stone in his path. The others took the moment to gather back up before charging Yokai. Hiro wasn’t paying attention, tuning out their voices. 

As Fred was knocked away from Yokai, Hiro finally reached the robot, already rising from the rubble. “Baymax, where’s Tadashi?” His nerves were at an all-time high, and Hiro could feel his mind pulling at the stone around them.

Baymax scanned the room before settling his eyes towards a section of rubble that had been next to where they emerged from. Without hesitation, Hiro let go of the rubble he’d been messing with and concentrated his effort on unearthing that spot. With Baymax’s help it only took about ten seconds.

In the meantime, Go Go had managed to land a hit on Yokai, prompting him to drop from his perch and pursue her. Honey Lemon waited in the shadows for an opportunity to strike.

Hiro threw another rock from the pile, spotting a tuft of black hair.  _ ‘Tadashi!’ _

Hiro kept pulling at the rubble, freeing his brother’s back. Baymax heaved the last big piece and freed his legs and feet. Hiro scrambled forward, touching his brother hesitantly. He looked up at Baymax as he finished a scan.

“Tadashi does not seem to have suffered any injuries, but I detected a large spike in brain activity in the moment before we were buried.”

Reassured that he wouldn’t break him further, Hiro rolled Tadashi over onto his back, peering into his face. His eyes were closed and he was breathing softly, but it only did so much to calm him down. A small part of Hiro’s mind thanked every god he knew of that the armor had been sturdy enough to protect him.  _ ‘Tadashi?’ _

Down below, Go Go hit Honey Lemon with one of her disks as a chem-ball was thrown. The floor iced and Go Go wiped out, crashing into Honey Lemon. Wasabi distracted Yokai, only to be thrown into Fred. The two flew across the room and joined the growing pile of their friends.

Hiro carefully set his brother down. There wasn’t anything else he could do, and his friends still needed his help.

Yokai was about to drop the hammer on the others when Hiro and Baymax flew over his head, nearly snatching the mask right off of his face. Now turning to face the only real threat left, Yokai tried to knock them from the sky. Baymax dodged spike after spike and put on a new burst of speed. A huge block of microbots finally did the trick, but Hiro kept falling towards Yokai. The boy landed on him, knocking them both down a flight of stairs. The microbots deactivated and showered the others as they tried to get up off of the ice. Hiro recovered first and saw the mask lying on the ground between him and Yokai. He snatched it up, watching the man with wide eyes as he started to stir on the floor, his back to him. Hiro slowly got up, his friends moving to the railing above to get a good look.

“It’s over, Krei.” His voice was hard, but tired. Yokai started to stand, his back still to them. 

The man finally turned, hatred blazing in his pale blue eyes. Not the pale blue of Alistair Krei.

The eyes of Robert Callaghan.

Hiro stumbled a half-step back. “Pro… Professor Callaghan?” He heard the others gasp from above him.

“The explosion… you died.” Hiro blinked, uncomprehending.

“No. I had your microbots,” Callaghan said, his eyes hard.

Hiro’s mind raced, skipping around as it tried to make sense of everything. “But, Tadashi. He would have  _ died!”  _ Hiro put his hands on his head, taking another half-step back. Tadashi would have gone inside, and he would have died. He would have died, and it would have been for  _ nothing _ . And now Tadashi was unresponsive somewhere in the room above them, hurt by Callaghan’s own hand. He felt his mind prickle, the rubble in the control room shifting. He looked back up at Callaghan, his own eyes wide and empty. “You would have just let him die.”

Callaghan took a step closer, reaching out his hand. “Give me the mask, Hiro.” His voice was low and dangerous.

Hiro took a few steps back. “He was going to go in there to  _ save _ you,” Hiro cried, almost pleading, although he didn’t know what he was begging for.

“That was  _ his _ mistake!” Callaghan spat.

Hiro froze, his desperation turning into anger. He glared up at his brother’s mentor, conscious of the rubble he knew to be creeping closer through the air. Callaghan hadn’t noticed yet. Hiro heard Baymax land behind him, but he didn’t bother to turn and look. It didn’t matter.

Callaghan’s eyes widened, looking at something in the air behind him. All of the concrete and loose debris Hiro could find were floating at the ready in the air at his back. Callaghan’s eyes flicked down to meet Hiro’s, full of fear. He tried to keep both the boy and the impossible occurrence in focus, but all he was doing was dividing his attention.

His venomous eyes still locked on Callaghan, Hiro sent the rubble at him with everything he had.  
  
  
  


The first thing Tadashi felt was pain. His head felt like he’d put his brain in a blender, thrown the resulting smoothie in a brain-shaped ice tray, frozen it, and stuffed it back in his head on a bed of cotton to melt a little. His body ached all over, but he didn’t feel anything stronger then what would probably be a small bruise. How did this happen?

His eyes fluttered open and he groaned, trying to remember. They’d flown to Akuma Island. There was a big room, a  _ portal _ room. And then there was that footage, and-

Tadashi hissed at the memory. He’d tried to shield them from Yokai, but he’d used too much power doing it. He could barely stand by the time the man had thrown the concrete, and the shattering of the shields he was maintaining coupled with being buried in the rubble had been too much. He blinked, confused. But he wasn’t buried. What-

Baymax’s visored face filled his view. “You are awake,” he said, soft but matter-of-fact.

“Bay-” Tadashi coughed, his throat coated in dust. “Baymax, what happened?”

The healthcare bot helped him stand, but he was unsteady. Tadashi leaned heavily on his arm. “Hiro and I found you and dug you out, but the others needed our help.”

“How… how long was I out?” Tadashi grit his teeth through the pain in his head, but noted that it was already less than before.

Baymax gathered him in his arms, lifting him from the floor. “Approximately four minutes.”

Tadashi sighed in relief. He heard Hiro’s voice from somewhere below them, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying. Tadashi frowned, tapping at the side of his helmet. His comms must have been busted when he got buried. Baymax took off gently, flying them deeper into the room and towards his brother and their friends.

As they approached, Tadashi blinked to clear his vision. Hiro had the mask, but Yokai was… Professor Callaghan? The emotions in the room hit him like a brick, and he grit his teeth against the pain. There was shock, betrayal, desperation, and anger.

“But, Tadashi. He would have  _ died!”  _ Hiro stilled, bringing his hands down from his head. ”You would have just let him die.” He sounded so empty, so  _ broken _ .

Tadashi bristled as Callaghan started walking forward, the look in the man’s eyes dangerous. “Give me the mask, Hiro.”

Hiro backed up. “He was going in there to  _ save _ you,” Hiro said, almost a desperate whimper.

“That was  _ his _ mistake.”

Hiro froze and Tadashi flinched as he felt his brother’s emotions turn into  _ rage _ . Rage that burned like ice. Baymax landed behind Hiro, but Hiro didn’t seem to notice. He felt his brother’s intent shift and crystalize, and he felt Callaghan’s growing fear as he looked behind them. Tadashi didn’t need to glance up to know what was happening.

Tadashi threw up a shield the instant that Hiro acted, the rippling air barely managing to hold the brunt of the attack. Hiro pushed harder and the shield cracked. The stress on Tadashi’s mind was too much, too soon. Before he could do anything about it, the shield and the rubble shattered, broken apart by an intense blast of vibration.

Hiro stumbled back, dropping the mask. Tadashi almost screamed, the pain in his head even worse than it had been when he woke up. He brought his hands to his head and started to curl up in Baymax’s arms. This was what Hiro had felt, he realized. When he’d used his abilities for the first time and the building exploded. God, did it  _ hurt _ . He was vaguely aware of Baymax saying something, but he wasn’t listening. Tadashi opened his eyes, bracing through the pain. Hiro stalked slowly after Callaghan as the man ran, dodging projectiles as they were thrown. He watched as the others ran to intervene. But they weren’t trying to stop Callaghan. They were trying to stop  _ Hiro. _

Go Go was intercepting rubble with Fred and Wasabi as Honey Lemon tried to block Hiro’s path and talk him down. Tadashi knew it should be loud, but all he could hear was the pain in his mind. He gritted his teeth and started sending out shields to block what his friends couldn’t or what would hurt them. But the shields were weak, and it didn’t take much for them to shatter. With every shattered shield, Tadashi tried to throw them out stronger, pushing desperately through the growing pain to stop the madness.

Hiro only had one piece left, aimed at Callaghan as the man pulled himself towards the hole in the roof. Tadashi knew that this one wouldn’t miss, and he knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would likely kill. Desperate, Tadashi did the only thing that he had left to do.

He opened his mind to his brother.  _ ‘Hiro, STOP!’ _

Hiro stumbled, falling into Honey Lemon’s arms. She looked down at him in alarm and the debris that Hiro had been holding with his mind fell back to earth.

Tadashi could hardly stand the pain anymore, biting back a scream. As he did, he saw Hiro’s body tense, curling up on itself a little as he struggled to stay upright.  _ I’m sending him too much,  _ Tadashi idly realized. He’d only meant to open the connection to call him off, but clearly he hadn’t done it right this time. Hiro was sharing some of Tadashi’s pain.

Tadashi shuddered, trying to close the connection. He didn’t want Hiro to feel this too. Hiro’s body relaxed, almost slumping into Honey Lemon’s arms. Hiro took a ragged breath and turned around, finally catching sight of his brother.

Baymax was holding him carefully, almost cradling him in his arms. Tadashi was watching his brother with a look that Hiro couldn’t quite identify. His eyes were glazed with pain, and it took Hiro a moment to place why.

He’d used too much power shielding them from Yokai. And then he’d woken up and immediately used  _ more _ of his abilities to save Callaghan from  _ Hiro _ . And then when they had been blown back from that strange blast of vibration… it had hurt him just like the explosion of the exhibition hall had hurt Hiro.

Hiro glanced up at Honey Lemon, realizing that she was still holding onto his arms. He’d tuned everyone out when he’d gone after Callaghan, but he vaguely remembered her trying to stop him. And catching him when Tadashi accidentally shared his pain. Her eyes were wide: fearful and worried. “Hiro?” she asked softly. He blinked up at her, his own eyes widening as he realized what he’d just done.

He’d just tried to kill Callaghan.

Hiro glanced around for the others, quickly spotting Fred, Go Go, and Wasabi making their way over. Their armor was damaged, but it didn’t look like just Yokai had done it.

He’d tried to kill Callaghan. He’d hurt the others when they tried to stop him.

He turned back to Tadashi, noticing that his brother’s eyes were barely open. Hiro pulled himself from Honey Lemon’s hold and stumbled over to him, still not fully recovered from the accidental mind-blast. “Tadashi?”

Tadashi didn’t say anything, just watching him through slitted eyes. The corner of his mouth started to raise into a smile before he was hit by another wave of pain. He tensed up, and Hiro grabbed at his hands. Tadashi gripped his hand so hard that his knuckles were probably white under his gloves.

Hiro looked up at Baymax. “What’s wrong with him?”

Baymax looked down at Tadashi before meeting Hiro’s eyes. “He has minor bruising from being buried by the rubble, but he pushed his abilities too far. Coupled with Professor Callaghan’s attack, the resulting damage to his brain is substantial.” Hiro paled and he heard his friends gasp behind him. Baymax looked around at them all before continuing. “He will make a full recovery.”

Tadashi’s eyes were closed, and his breathing was still uneven. He didn’t seem to be in quite as much pain anymore. It probably wasn’t better by a lot, but Hiro would take what he could get.

He set his head against Baymax’s arm. “This is my fault.” It was so quiet, all Hiro could hear was Tadashi’s ragged breathing.  _ “This is my fault.” _ He curled his free hand into a fist, grinding his teeth. He let out a rough breath of his own and forced himself to relax. He didn’t need to add more floating shit to his list of actions today.

He turned to look at Fred, Go Go, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon. They were watching him with mixed expressions, mostly crosses between worry and wariness. Worry for Tadashi and wariness for him, he figured. And he deserved it.

“I’m sorry.” They focused their eyes on him, blinking in surprise. “I’m so sorry. What I did…” Hiro scrunched up his face, disgust and shame marring his features. “I crossed a line. I..” His voice cracked, and he hugged himself with his free arm. “I tried to… and you tried to stop me, and I hurt you.” Hiro’s voice cracked again as he screwed his eyes shut. “I should never have done that,” he finished quietly.

He heard the footsteps, but he didn’t open his eyes until there were hands grabbing his arms firmly under his shoulder pads. “Hiro, look at me.”

He opened his eyes, Go Go standing in front of him with the others just behind her. “Don’t you  _ ever _ do that again. Do you understand me?” Her voice was quiet, but there was still danger lurking in there. Hiro nodded, and her eyes and her grip softened. Before he knew it, she was pulling him into a hug. “Don’t do that again,” she said, softly this time. “Don’t scare us like that. What you just did… that’s not you. Don’t ever let that  _ become _ you.”

Hiro didn’t say anything, but he hugged her back, pressing his face into her shoulder. Then there were more arms around him as the others piled on. He almost allowed himself a small smile, but he didn’t feel he deserved it. He felt something stir and poke at the back of his mind. He stiffened and the others pulled back, a little alarmed at his change in posture.

“Sorry, Hiro. I didn’t mean to do that.”

Hiro spun at the voice, seeing Tadashi watching him from Baymax’s arms. His eyes were still a little heavy-lidded, but most of the pain that was glazing them was gone. He had a small smile on his face. Tadashi moved his head a little to look at his friends, wincing a little with the movement. “Hey, guys. What did I miss?” he joked lightly. His smile faded a little, and his eyes grew sad. “So… Callaghan.”

Everyone flinched. They hadn’t realized that Tadashi had been there until they were fighting off Hiro, but they remembered Baymax landing. “Tadashi,” Hiro started, “I…”

“I know, Hiro.” Tadashi cut him off quietly, letting go of his hand. He reached over and put his hand on Hiro’s helmet. “I know.” Whether or not he’d heard everything, Tadashi was still an empath, after all. He knew more than anyone else what Hiro was feeling.

“How are you feeling?” Honey Lemon asked quietly. 

Tadashi smiled, but it was a little flat. “Pain on a scale of one to ten? Eight. But given that it was about an eleven a few minutes ago, I’ll be alright.”

Hiro winced, knowing exactly how he was feeling. Tadashi caught the motion and looked back at his brother again. “I’m sorry, Hiro.”

“What? Why?” Hiro’s gaze snapped up to his, confused.

“When I told you to stop, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Tadashi’s eyes grew regretful. “I was in so much pain when I opened the connection, I didn’t realize  _ how _ I was doing it. Instead of sending you a message, I just sent you an all-access, VIP ticket to the pain in my head.”

The others’ eyes widened, suddenly realizing why Hiro had almost collapsed. While it had successfully stopped his rampage, it wasn’t exactly something they were thankful for.

“Hey, it stopped me, didn’t it?” Hiro said, not quite as lightly as he meant to. “You brought me back. That’s all that matters.”

Tadashi smiled at him, but Hiro knew that it was just his trademark ‘I don’t agree but I’m not going to argue it with you’ smile. Tadashi’s eyes clouded for a second and he looked over at Honey Lemon.

“I don’t understand,” she said softly. “He was such a good man.” Honey Lemon looked up at her friends, a look of betrayed confusion on her face. “What happened?”

Brought back down to the reality of what they uncovered tonight, everyone got quiet. “There’s something we’re missing,” Hiro muttered. He broke away from the group and ran up the stairs to the next level. Everyone else exchanged looks before following him.

“Uh, Hiro? Where are you going?” Wasabi called.

“The answer is in here somewhere,” he called back, not even looking over his shoulder. He picked his way back across the large room until he’d reached the control room. He’d already cleaned out most of the debris with his telekinetic attack earlier, but there was still a bit to work around. He paused in front of the console they’d started at, inspecting it. It didn’t seem too heavily damaged from the fight, and what little there was seemed to be superficial. Score one for Baymax and Tadashi.

Hiro powered the screen back on, the footage paused right where they’d left it. He pressed play again, conscious of the others catching up. Callaghan came running into frame, trying to barrel through the small crowd to get to Krei. They held him back as he reached for the CEO and blamed him for what had just happened. The camera began to shake and the people in the control room stumbled.

“An earthquake?” Go Go murmured.

Hiro watched carefully as Callaghan’s face twisted and the shaking stopped. “No,” he said softly, turning around to look at Baymax. “You said Tadashi’s pain got worse after Callaghan  _ attacked _ , right?”

“Correct,” Baymax said softly.

“When I first used my powers, the pain got worse when the building exploded. The vibration, the shockwave… it made it worse.” Hiro glanced at Tadashi, watching his eyes widen as he started coming to the same conclusion.

“Callaghan didn’t have the mask,” Tadashi said quietly. “You did. And then my shield and your rubble shattered, you got knocked back, and it  _ hurt _ .”

Hiro turned back at the screen and pressed play again. Callaghan crumpled to the ground, his face twisted in pain and grief.  _ Pain and grief.  _ Hiro rewound the footage again, scanning for another shot of him anywhere else on the feeds.

“Wait, wait! Stop.” Honey Lemon pointed at the screen. “There he is.”

Hiro stopped rewinding and pressed play. Callaghan hugged the pod’s pilot, Abigail. 

Tadashi gasped, drawing the attention of everyone. “I knew there was something familiar about her. But her eyes, the face she made when she braced for the portal… Hiro, is there a name tag or anything on her uniform?”

Hiro turned back to the computer, watching carefully. He scrubbed the footage for a moment before zooming in on the side of her helmet. ‘CALLAGHAN’.

“Abigail Callaghan,” Tadashi murmured. “The pilot was Callaghan’s daughter.”

“Callaghan blames Krei!” Fred said. “This is a  _ revenge _ story.”

“And when he saw the portal go up in flames, when he confronted Krei…” Hiro trailed off.

“He caused the earthquake,” Tadashi finished.

_ “What?” _ Go Go cried.

Fred gasped. “A moment of intense stress followed by a strange, unnatural occurrence and physical pain? He’s a  _ super-powered  _ super-villain!”

“And now he has everything he needs to make a move,” Hiro added. “So, what are we waiting for?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited to finish uploading these chapters because I wrote a few one-shots that take place afterwards and I _love_ them. So stay tuned! I'm more proud of them than of this fic, tbh, so if that's any incentive...


	9. Shifting Gravity

They flew back to the Hamada garage from Akuma Island. It took a little bit to track down Tadashi’s hoverboard among the wreckage of the portal room, but once they did it was smooth sailing. Baymax flew slower this time, since Tadashi still wasn’t in good enough condition to use the hoverboard himself. Instead, Tadashi and Hiro traded gloves so that the older brother could anchor himself on Baymax’s back and Hiro could control the hoverboard. Hiro made a few jokes about keeping his new ride for himself and tried out a few simple tricks in the air as they flew over the city.

Now that they knew who Yokai was and could assume his end goal was taking Alistair Krei down, Fred took it upon himself to slueth his way to Callaghan’s next move. It didn’t take long. Hiro was only ten minutes into making quick repairs when Fred told them about the Krei Tech campus dedication the next day. As comforting as it was to know Callaghan’s next move would be in a little over fourteen hours, it was also a little too close for comfort.

Hiro assured them that most of the damage to their armor was cosmetic and immediately prioritized fixing everything that was more important. They weren’t too worried about that. No, the group was concerned about Tadashi. Fourteen hours was not a long time when it came to recovering from what Fred dubbed ‘neural burnout.’ It had only been an hour since the battle had ended and Tadashi’s pain was down to a self-diagnosed six, but there was no guarantee that he’d be stable after the pain faded. Hiro cited his own experience with it, noting that he’d still had troubles with fast motions for about a day and a half afterwards.  _ Definitely  _ not a great sign for hoping he’d be ready to continue the fight in the morning.

It was all especially worrying because they knew that they wouldn’t be able to keep him from the fight. There was no way in hell that they could stop him from coming, and he would not tolerate being benched. While Tadashi was generally reasonable and easygoing, he asserted that this was more important than him. He was going, whether they liked it or not. 

In return, the team demanded some ground rules. While he was uniquely qualified for close combat and blitz tactics, neither were good for someone who should be keeping their movements limited. Tadashi was asked to keep his distance from the main fight, providing help via shielding or by sending out his hoverboard to fight for him. Callaghan spent so much time on his microbot towers that no one expected his martial arts would help them anyway. Tadashi reluctantly agreed to those terms but asserted that if the situation was critical he’d be in the thick of it in a second.

They were a little worried about Callaghan using his powers. They had no concrete evidence that he truly  _ had _ powers, other than a scan from Baymax, anyway. Tadashi pointed out that he hadn’t used them at all during their other encounters and that he’d only used them on the island when he was in immediate mortal peril. There was a chance that he’d only used his abilities instinctively, that he hadn’t been practicing them like Tadashi and Hiro had. If it was true, it gave them an edge.

Everyone went home before long to get some rest. The dedication wasn’t until early afternoon, but they all intended to get as much sleep as possible and get there a little early. Hiro repaired what he could and made small modifications here and there before going to bed himself. When morning came, the Nerd Crew gathered in the Lucky Cat Cafe for a team breakfast, and then they suited up. They flew out and set up a position on top of a tall building with a good view of the new Krei Tech campus and waited.

At two on the dot, they watched Krei walk onto a small black stage in the middle of the building’s sweeping wings. Wasabi noted that he thought the zen garden in the lawn was a nice touch, trying to lighten the mood. Krei introduced himself over the PA and started to introduce the new building.

“This new campus is the culmination of a lifelong dream. But none of this would’ve been possible without a few bumps in the road. Those setbacks made us  _ stronger _ and set us on the path to a bright future!”

Tadashi tensed. “He’s here,” he warned. The cheering of the crowd quickly morphed into sounds of alarm as microbots climbed the side of the building. They watched as Callaghan appeared on the roof, making his way quickly towards the quad where Krei and his guests were standing.

_ “Setback?”  _ Callaghan yelled from behind his mask, rage coloring every movement. He plunged down the side of the building at Krei, catching the man before he could run. The two rose into the air and Callaghan flicked back his mask. “Was my daughter a  _ ‘setback’?” _

“Callaghan! But you…” Krei’s eyes were wide at the sight of the man back from the grave, but he was a smart man. “Your daughter, that… That was an accident. I-”

“No! You knew it was unsafe.” Callaghan leaned closer, and if looks could kill, there’d be no saving the wealthy man in front of him. “My daughter is gone because of  _ your arrogance _ .”

Microbots slowly brought three curved pieces of a portal frame into view from around the building, slowly making their way up into the sky above the campus.

“What are you doing?” Krei looked around as much as his trapped body allowed, his eyes wide and fearful.

Callaghan turned back to face him. “You took everything from me when you sent Abigail into that machine. Now I’m taking everything from  _ you. _ ” He looked back up at the sky where the portal was finally being brought together. It immediately activated, it’s center filling with a pulsating blue light.

“No! No, No! You  _ can’t!” _ Krei writhed, looking up in horror at the now-powered machine. Pieces of the top floors began to pull away from the building and into the portal, the sound of warping metal and shattering glass filling the air above the low hum of the machine. 

“You’re going to watch  _ everything  _ you’ve built disappear,” Callaghan hissed. “Then, it’s your turn.”

“Professor Callaghan!” Tadashi’s voice rang through the air.

They both turned at the sound of Baymax’s thrusters as the team landed on the roof nearby. Tadashi and Hiro pulled off their helmets. “Let him go!” Hiro called. Callaghan just glared silently at them. If looks could kill, indeed.

Hiro tried again, gesturing at the destruction in progress around them. “Is this what Abigail would have wanted?”

“Abigail is  _ gone!”  _ he snapped.

“This won’t change anything,” Hiro said, almost pleading. “Trust me, I know.” The unspoken accusation hung in the air. Callaghan’s face relaxed a little, some of the rage melting into consideration. Tadashi felt the shift, hope swelling in his own chest.

“Listen to the kid, Callaghan,” Krei started shakily. Callaghan’s walls immediately began to build back up.

_ ‘Shut up!’  _ Tadashi hissed silently at him, but Krei wasn’t listening. How one does that to a voice in your  _ head,  _ Tadashi wasn’t sure.

“Please, just let me go,” he continued. “I’ll give you anything you want!”

Tadashi flinched as the metaphorical doors slammed shut. He took back everything he’d thought about the man being quick on the uptake. Krei clearly had no idea how to keep himself alive in this situation.

Callaghan’s face was back to its now ever-present state of wrath. “ _ I want my daughter back!” _ The mask slammed down on his face, cutting off the view of his expressions. Callaghan sent a wall of microbots at the seven armored figures. They screamed, barely diving out of the way in time. Hiro and Tadashi immediately put their helmets back on, the latter with a small wince.

“Go for the mask!” Hiro called, vaulting into place on Baymax and blasting off at speeds that cracked the roof beneath them. Callaghan dodged the red and purple blur, and Hiro pulled back his hand in frustration. Callaghan grabbed Baymax’s feet as they flew past, spinning them around like a rope over his head. Tadashi threw up a shield just before Baymax slammed into the roof garden, but it shattered under the impact. Hiro was thrown from the robot’s back, flying through the glass and into the building. Tadashi’s blood ran cold as he lost sight of his little brother.

_ ‘Hiro!’ _ He was headed towards them in an instant, but Callaghan had other ideas. 

Inside, Hiro finally slid to a stop on the floor.  _ ‘I’m okay-’  _ Hiro stopped the communication as the glass around him floated to the ceiling. He blinked in surprise until he followed suit a second later. He landed on the ceiling like the world had been flipped, screaming in alarm.

Tadashi felt his panic through their channel as he tried to dodge microbots and make his way over.  _ ‘Hiro!’ _

_ ‘Gravity’s in reverse! I’m stuck on the ceiling!’ _

Baymax tried to get to Hiro when he screamed, only for Callaghan to grab him from behind and slam him into the ground at the edge of the building. Baymax’s body shattered the stage, his armor severely damaged.

The rest of the team began to charge, having finally recovered from their first near miss. Tadashi tried again to search for Hiro while Callaghan’s attention was divided. Inside the building, Hiro was trying to get up off of the ceiling and make his way out. The ‘ground’ beneath him fell away, and he screamed again, falling with it up into the air.

Tadashi’s head shot up at the sound, and he watched as his little brother caught a piece of rebar, hanging desperately onto the crumbling building. Tadashi’s head pounded dully as he dodged more microbots, but he was too focused on Hiro. If he tried to hold Hiro in place with a shield, he could get crushed or impaled when the chunk he was clinging to finally gave way. Or by any other bit of building, for that matter. And the same was already a possibility if he  _ didn’t _ try and keep him close to earth with a shield, just with the added bonus of falling into a portal.

Down below, Go Go skated around before getting wrapped in a ball of microbots that was growing ever smaller. Fred got grabbed by two different walls of microbots, pulling his arms and legs apart like they were trying to pull him in half, right down the middle. Wasabi was on the roof they’d started on, defending against barrage after barrage of microbots until they peeled up the metal of the roof and began to crush him. Honey Lemon was gumming up as many microbots as she could, making a defensive bubble as a new spike came down after her. Trapped inside her own shield, it cracked under attack after attack.

While Tadashi was distracted by his brother’s situation and the throbbing of his own head, he was knocked from his hoverboard and landed on the opposite side of the roof from his friends. Callaghan made a giant block of microbots that threatened to crush him, held back by cracking shields.

Above, Hiro’s rebar broke. He flailed through the sky before managing to snag the end of a cable. He looked down in desperation, hearing the sounds of his friends’ struggling through the comms. He racked his brain for anything,  _ anything  _ that could help them… and heard the familiar clink of microbots on glass as they bounced off of his visor. He looked… up? Down?  _ Skyward,  _ and saw them getting sucked into the portal with everything else.

“That’s it! I know how to beat him!” He looked back down towards his trapped friends, heart hardened with determination. “Listen up!”

Despite Tadashi’s own preoccupation, he managed a grin at his little brother’s authoritative tone.

“Use those big brains of yours and think your way around the problem. Look for a new angle!”

Tadashi laughed.  _ ‘I think that may be the best thing I’ve ever taught you, little brother.’ _

_ ‘Don’t get too cocky,  _ nii-san. _ ’  _ Hiro replied sarcastically.  _ ‘There’s still plenty of time to unlearn it.’ _

Wasabi looked around, cutting his way through the roof and into the significantly less crowded floor below. Honey Lemon used a spike coming through her bubble to pull herself out. Fred used a metal sheet on the ground below him like a sign, sticking his arm out of his costume’s mouth and spinning it to get the microbots off of him. Go Go used her speed to cut her way out of her now-much-smaller prison-sphere. Baymax struggled against a tide of microbots holding him down, unable to make progress.

Tadashi pushed his shields back, giving himself enough room to call his board back to him, but it was on the ground a few stories below him. Baymax and Tadashi heard it at the same time, their heads snapping up as a piece of glass sliced Hiro’s arm on its way past him. Hiro groaned, wanting nothing more than to hold the injury, but his grip in the cable was the only thing between him and the portal above him.

Baymax’s rocket fist freed him from his own microbot prison before Tadashi had a chance to do anything, and the red robot blasted up into the sky after Hiro. The boy let go of the cable as Baymax swooped above him, falling squarely back onto the robot’s back. Tadashi let out a whoop. His brother was safe from imminent death. He turned his focus back on the fight at hand.

Still captive with Callaghan, Krei laughed in relief. “Ha! I  _ love  _ that robot!”

Callaghan pinned him to a wall in retaliation, holding him in place with the metal sign of the Krei Tech logo.

The team gathered back at the entrance to the campus. “Okay,” Hiro started. " New plan. Forget the mask. Take out the bots! They’ll get sucked up into the portal.”

“Now  _ that _ is a plan!” Wasabi cried enthusiastically. Tadashi shared a grin with Hiro.

“Honey, Fred, can you give us some cover?” Hiro continued.

Fred scoffed, throwing his arms wide. “Like you have to ask.”

“Let’s do this, Freddie!” Honey Lemon yelled, throwing four blue chem-balls high into the air. Fred detonated them enthusiastically with his flames.

“Smokescreen!”

Blue smoke swept across the campus, shrouding everything below the upper roof of the building in fog. Frustrated, Callaghan raised himself above it, his eyes catching on a very determined-looking red and purple duo flying right at him.

Below the smoke, Wasabi, Fred, Go Go, Honey Lemon, and Tadashi were all hacking and slashing at the sea of microbots. With every attack, the separated machines were sent into the sky, at the mercy of the shifting gravity. Above, Baymax and Hiro dodged dozens of spikes, leading them all up to the portal.

“Ready… and…  _ dive!” _

At Hiro’s signal, they went from flying headlong at the portal to diving back towards the earth. Baymax punched through a large spire of microbots on the way down, scattering them and sending them up to their doom. 

Under the smokescreen, Wasabi discovered that gravity was starting to flip. The team immediately started using it to their advantage, jumping higher than ever and causing more microbot carnage. Back up above, Hiro was having fun as Baymax used his karate to sever microbots from their swarm and send them away. The cheerful tones of Baymax’s voice as he called out the moves were spirit-lifting to everyone.

Finally Callaghan managed to pin the flying menaces, holding them in the sky and at his mercy. “This ends  _ now!”  _ He thrust his hand to call the microbots for the final blow-

And none came. Hiro smiled smugly at him as he tried again and again, with the same result. 

“Looks like you’re out of microbots,” he said lightly. Callaghan muttered in shock, looking down to realize that the smoke had begun to clear, and the only things supporting him were thin microbot stilts. Hiro’s gaze sobered, and he stared down at Callaghan with hard eyes. “Baymax!”

Baymax broke free from the microbots holding him and dove at Callaghan. The man braced for impact, but the blow never came. He moved his arms from in front of his face and flinched at the sight of Baymax’s fist a foot from his nose. Hiro and Baymax were flying against the pull of the portal, just staring down at him.

“Our programming prevents us from injuring a human being.” Hiro smiled down at Callaghan, satisfied. “ _ But  _ we’ll take  _ that. _ ” Baymax gingerly plucked the mask from Callaghan’s face and crushed it in his hand.

The microbots everywhere deactivated, falling uselessly towards whichever gravity pulled them harder. Callaghan began to fall up as the portal fell down. Hiro and Baymax let him fall for a moment before coming in and grabbing him. The portal fell back to earth, spinning like a coin until it slammed into what remained of the Krei Tech building. When the dust cleared, nine figures stood in the remnants of the campus’ nice plaza. Baymax dropped Callaghan onto the ground, landing between the rest of the team and the dust cloud.

The cloud was sucked away not a moment later. The portal was still active, propped up in the wreckage.

“It’s still on!” Tadashi spun to look at the others, his eyes wide. “We have to shut it down!”

“We  _ can’t! _ The containment field is failing. The portal is gonna tear itself apart!” Krei motioned wildly at the machine. He of all people knew what exactly it was capable of. 

It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines. “We need to get out of here, now!” Hiro cried, already running towards the street. As they all ran together, Tadashi glanced back, stopping in his tracks. The others heard him stop and slowed down to see what the matter was. 

Baymax hadn’t moved. He was still staring at the portal.

“Baymax!” Tadashi and Hiro ran back towards the robot, but they hadn’t even cleared half the distance before he spoke.

“My sensor is detecting signs of life.”

Tadashi skid to a stop. “What?”

“Coming from…” Baymax pointed at the portal, “...there. The life signs are female. She appears to be in hyper-sleep.”

The implication hit everyone like a truck. 

“Callaghan’s daughter,” Tadashi breathed. “She’s still alive.”

That snapped Callaghan back to the land of the living, having already detached himself to stew in his failure and grief. “Abigail.”

Hiro scrambled up onto Baymax’s back, anchoring to the suit. “Let’s go get her.”

“You can't!” Krei gestured wildly. “The portal is  _ destabilizing _ \- you’ll never make it.” The last bit came out soft as he tried to talk sense into Hiro.

“She’s alive in there.” Hiro looked back at all of them, locking eyes with each of his friends until settling on Tadashi. “Someone has to help.”

Tadashi snatched Hiro’s hand, forcing his little brother to look back at him. “I’m coming too.”

“What? No-”

“I promised I’d never leave you again,” Tadashi said, cutting him off. “Like it or not, that promise is a two-way street, Hiro. Where  _ you _ go,  _ I  _ go.”

Hiro looked at him for just a beat longer before nodding. He turned back to look at Baymax. “What do you say, buddy?”

“Flying makes me a better healthcare companion.”

Hiro nodded with a determined smile and Baymax deployed his wings. He shot up into the air, looping in the sky until he was level with the portal, Tadashi hot on his heels. They soared into the portal-

And disappeared.


	10. Kaleidoscopes

Entering the portal wasn’t anything like either of the Hamadas expected. Passing through the portal’s surface itself felt somewhat like diving into thick water. Once they were in though, the air felt like it was thin and frictionless. And it was  _ cold _ .

One moment, they were looking at the pulsing blue of the portal, and the next they were blinded by light. When their eyes finally adjusted, it was like nothing they’d ever seen. Bright gas clouds seemed to be moving at the edges of the space, mirrored in fractals and kaleidoscopes. There were deep purples and rich pinks, royal blues and bright turquoises. There were hints of a deep seafoam green in the hearts of many of the formations. It was  _ breathtaking _ .

And the space, this…  _ world _ within the portal seemed to amplify their powers.

The moment they’d broken through to the other side, Tadashi and Hiro were conscious of the fact that their minds felt closer. They’d already been plenty in sync before. In everyday life they were intuitive towards the other. And there were other moments, moments like at the bottom of the bay when they weren’t sure which one of them had told the others to grab Baymax. And in the warehouse when they’d both been startled by Baymax, and they’d spoken in sync.

But this was different. Tadashi’s shields were stronger, for one. He had wrapped them in a bubble shield before they’d gone through the portal, not knowing what they’d find on the other side. Now they felt like they were almost twice as fortified as he’d originally made them.

Hiro wasn’t using his powers, but he could feel it too. Like an electric hum pulling at his senses, he knew that whatever he did, it’d blow his normal abilities out of the water.

And their little ‘private channel’ wasn’t so little anymore. It didn’t feel as much like they were two minds connected by a sturdy rope bridge, but more like two minds separated by a low wooden fence. The line between them had lessened and was more easily crossed. 

For a moment, the space seemed empty. That moment was gone very quickly.

“Careful! There’s Krei Tech debris everywhere!” Tadashi called out, but it was more for Baymax’s benefit than Hiro’s. They didn’t need to speak to each other here, they just  _ knew _ .

The debris moved like it was being pulled in some kind of unseen current, streams of it crossing each other as they filled this kaleidoscope world. Tadashi strengthened their shields and flew closer to Baymax and Hiro.

They ducked and weaved, dodging rubble left and right. Sometimes it was small stuff, like a chair or a table. Sometimes it was chunks of building bigger than the Cafe. At one point, Tadashi had to grab on behind Hiro since Baymax was the better flier. Things were starting to get tight. And then, just past the brunt of the debris, the pod floated slowly through space.

“I have located the patient,” Baymax said calmly.

Their eyes widened, the boys sharing a glance. “Hurry!” Hiro called, sinking lower onto Baymax’s back. Tadashi pressed in closer too as they raced over to where the machine waited.

Baymax slowed down just before making contact, Tadashi dismissing their shields and using his hoverboard to help counter their momentum. Baymax carefully grabbed the pod and twisted it towards them. From his back, Hiro reached over and swept his hand across the frosted glass. Abigail’s slow breathing fogged against her visor as she slept.

Tadashi patted Baymax’s shoulder. They were running out of time. “Come on, buddy, let’s get her home.”

Baymax moved to the back of the pod, holding it tight. Hiro and Tadashi moved onto the pod itself, Hiro anchoring himself to it with his magnets and Tadashi holding tight to Hiro. He didn’t want to detach from the hoverboard, not when it could be used to help them change direction faster. With Baymax pushing the pod the way he was, precision flying was out of the bag.

“I’ll guide you out of here,” Hiro said, looking back at Baymax. “Let’s go!”

Tadashi idly thought that it was funny that his little brother had hijacked his nursebot for use as a crime-fighting aircraft. Hiro just smugly thanked him for letting him go bot fighting again. Tadashi immediately smacked the back of his brother’s helmet in retaliation, sending him his sarcastic disapproval.

Tadashi threw up his shields again, as strong as he could make them, and the brothers watched out for rubble in their path and coming their way. They alternated between themselves as they shouted directions, occasionally speaking together. Every once in a while, Tadashi used his hoverboard to nudge them one way or another. Hiro was using his telekinesis to keep away some of the smaller pieces that were harder to avoid.

At last they were through the minefield. Hiro spared a moment to glance back at Baymax and his brother to grin. While he was distracted, another huge piece of concrete came into view, headed right for them. Tadashi tensed and immediately fortified the shields. Baymax spun, putting himself between his patients and the giant rock.

There was a sickening crack as the rubble crashed against Tadashi’s shield. Both broke into pieces, but Tadashi wasn’t quite fast enough to stop the debris from slipping through the shattered shield. Hiro pushed away as many as he could, but one large piece still slammed into Baymax’s back. Before they could even blink, Baymax’s right wing was gone and the left was heavily damaged.

The brothers screamed as one as the pod spun lazily from its course. “Baymax!” 

Baymax just blinked, taking a moment to assess the damage to his systems. “My wings have been damaged, but my thrusters are still operable.”

They breathed twin sighs of relief. It still wasn’t great, but it was enough. “Baymax, let’s get out of here,” Hiro said, soft and shaky. Tadashi hugged him tighter, knowing full well what he was thinking. They could have lost Baymax, they could have lost the pod, they could have lost each other. It didn’t happen, but it was  _ far _ closer than was comfortable.

Baymax’s thrusters came back online, and they glided shakily towards the portal. Tadashi used his hoverboard constantly now. While Baymax’s thrusters were  _ operational _ , it was clear that they weren’t quite as unharmed as they assumed. Either that, or the missing wing really was that important, even in the low-friction atmosphere. Regardless, Tadashi restored the shield and helped keep them sailing as smoothly as he could.

After a few more moments they were there, passing through the portal again and blasting back into the real world.   
  
  
  
  


Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go, and Fred were pressed against a slab of concrete, the force of the portal starting to make sticking around extremely dangerous. The portal frame shook, pieces of it starting to glow. They ducked as it exploded, covering themselves desperately against the sudden change of force. There was another crash farther off, and they quickly stood up from behind their cover.

Just before the portal exploded, the pod had come sailing through. When earth’s gravity and thick atmosphere took hold of it, it had quickly plummeted to the ground, digging a deep trench as it came to a stop. Baymax’s thrusters deactivated and he looked around, scanning his patients for injuries and the area for anything important to note.

Hiro and Tadashi shakily slid off the pod, disoriented. With their return to San Fransokyo came the normal limits of their abilities. Their senses felt deadened and blunt, having already gotten used to the effortless communication and control of their abilities while they were in the portal. Hiro shook himself with a small wince before looking back at the pod. 

It took both of the brothers a moment to realize that their friends were calling their names, charging towards them with the fervor of people who’d rightfully thought the explosion spelled their end. Tadashi smiled warmly at them, but he was too tired to do much else. Hiro peered into the pod. Abigail Callaghan sat inside, still asleep and oblivious.

Baymax came waddling around from the back, and everyone looked to him. The others noticed his damage for the first time, gasping at his missing right wing and his crippled left. It couldn’t even fold back into his armor all the way, sticking out in much the same way as a bird holds a broken wing.

“Baymax, how is she? Can we wake her up?” Tadashi asked quietly. He was so,  _ so _ tired, and he could tell that Hiro was feeling it too.

“She appears to be waking from hyper-sleep on her own. Opening the pod too soon could have negative effects on her recovery,” he informed. Baymax looked over the Hamada brothers again. “You two are in need of immediate rest.”

Hiro was leaning heavily on the pod, and Tadashi was propping himself up with his hoverboard. Hiro chuckled softly, sending the robot what he wanted to be a mischievous glance. He was too exhausted to make it work. “You think?”

Hiro’s knees chose that moment to buckle, and Tadashi tried to catch him as he fell. All he managed to do was go down with him. Their friends rushed forward in alarm, but Tadashi was laughing, and Hiro was trying to wave them off.

“What  _ happened _ in there?” Go Go asked, clearly alarmed by the extreme change in the brothers between going in and coming out of the portal.

“Was really pretty,” Hiro mumbled. “Our powers were… strong.  _ Really  _ strong. I guess… it was more draining than we thought.”

Fred gasped, bouncing a little. “It magnified your powers as espers?”

It took a moment for Fred’s sentence to make any sense to anyone, let alone the exhausted Tadashi and Hiro on the ground.

“As  _ what?” _ Tadashi asked, blinking at his friend in confusion. Was he just too tired, or was there really something he was missing? He wasn’t sure.

“Espers,” Fred said proudly. “ESP-users. ESP-ers. Espers!”

Hiro groaned, putting his hands on his visor. “He  _ named _ us.”

The rest of the group laughed and helped them up off of the ground. 

By now, the police sirens were starting to get close. Everyone looked around in alarm. They hadn’t thought this far ahead. “We’ve gotta get out of here,” Wasabi warned. “They’re gonna have  _ questions.  _ Questions I’m not sure we have  _ legal _ answers to.”

They looked over at Baymax, and Honey Lemon bit her lip. “Uh, Baymax? Can you fly?”

“Without my wings, any flight will be unsafe for passengers.” They all groaned. Their primary mode of transportation was out. Callaghan hovered nearby, looking at the pod anxiously. They weren’t worried about him going anywhere. They turned to Krei, who had started walking towards them when the sirens started.

“You,” Tadashi started, leaning on Wasabi for support as he pointed, “don’t know who we are. You didn’t catch our names, you didn’t see our faces, and you won’t tell anyone if you think you saw something that doesn’t make sense. Capisce?”

Krei looked a little startled at being addressed. He looked behind him, as if expecting someone else to be the subject of Tadashi’s attention.

“You owe us,” Tadashi reminded. “And if we want ourselves to be known, that’s  _ our _ decision.”

Now that he was sure of what was happening, Krei nodded, his face serious. “You have my word.”

Tadashi glanced over at Callaghan, hanging back at the edge of the group. Tadashi sent out his thoughts to Callaghan and the rest of the team. He wanted them to hear it, too. 

_ ‘What we did here today, you  _ owe _ us, Callaghan.’  _ The former professor’s head snapped up, looking at Tadashi with wide eyes.  _ ‘I can’t pretend that you didn’t see what we can do, or that you know who we all are.’  _ Tadashi blinked and glanced around, trying to look natural so that Krei wouldn’t think he was missing anything.  _ ‘All I ask is that you don’t tell anyone else.’  _ Tadashi trailed off, debating whether or not he should mention Callaghan’s abilities.  _ ‘And try not to make any more earthquakes. It’ll just make your head hurt.’ _

Tadashi took a deep breath, cutting off the connection. When he looked back at Callaghan to gauge his reaction, the man just nodded. Satisfied, he turned his attention back to everyone else. “I think it’s time we get out of here.”

Tadashi scanned their surroundings, looking for a way out that didn’t involve passing the police. It dawned on him for the first time that clear glass visors were not the best thing for concealing identities. It hadn’t been a concern when they’d designed the suits.

He spotted the San Fransokyo Tribune building nearby, tall enough to keep them out of the way and away from the eyes that would rather be pointed at the ground. “Baymax, can you fly yourself? No passengers?”

Baymax turned to face him as the others looked at him questioningly. “Yes.”

Tadashi nodded. “Can you meet us on top of the Tribune? I want to make sure Abigail’s okay before we go home, but I don’t really want to explain  _ us _ to the cops.”

Baymax took off gently, his flight path unstable as he made his way around. It looked like he was going the long way so as to not draw so much attention to himself, but Tadashi doubted it really mattered. There’d be news choppers here before long, and if they hadn’t left by then, everyone would see them hanging out on the roof anyway.

“Uh, the  _ Tribune _ ? Tadashi, what are you thinking?” Go Go raised her eyebrows at him.

“My hoverboard still flies, and Hiro built it to handle three times my weight. I can ferry us up there and no one will be able to bother us. The news will probably figure out we’re up there before the police do anyway.”

“But Tadashi,” Honey Lemon started, “is it safe for you to do that? You can barely stand.”

Tadashi gave her his best tired grin. “I’m already feeling better,” he reassured her. It wasn’t quite the truth, but he’d readjusted to normal gravity. Hiro shot him a look that said he knew Tadashi was full of shit, but he kept quiet. “Besides, between my shields and the gloves, it’ll be fine. I could  _ sit _ on the board and still fly it okay.”

They all looked at him like they didn’t entirely believe him, but he didn’t really care.

Wasabi sighed, “Fine.”

The next few minutes were spent that way, Tadashi bringing everyone up to join Baymax on the nearby roof. Wasabi was reluctantly first, followed by Fred and Hiro, and then Go Go and Honey Lemon. Tadashi was thankful that Hiro had the foresight to make the board as big as he did, or they would have had a lot more trouble.

They settled on the roof, Tadashi and Hiro sitting at the edge of the building as the others hovered behind them. They all watched as the police finally made their way onto the scene, looking around and taking statements. The paramedics pulled Abigail from the pod, and Tadashi smiled a little when he noticed that they were the same paramedics who had attended to Tadashi and Hiro at the showcase fire.

Callaghan was arrested and Krei seemed to be giving his statement to the police. Tadashi scooted back from the edge of the roof, deciding that he’d seen all that he wanted to. “You guys ready to go home?”

He was met with a resounding chorus of ‘yes’es. Fred had called Heathcliff as their getaway driver and he was pulled up on a nearby street. Honey Lemon and Tadashi collaborated to make slides that led down onto lower rooftops and then onto the street. They were quickly piled into a limo in their armor until they pulled into the safety of the Fredrickson estate. By then, the sun had started to set.

They all took off their armor as quickly as their tired bodies would allow, stashing their gear in an unused bedroom. Fred offered them all rooms for the night, but everyone just wanted to go home.   
  
  
  


Tadashi and Hiro stumbled through the door to the house with Baymax metaphorically hovering behind them.

“Boys, there you are! I was just looking for you!” Aunt Cass’s head peeked around the edge of the kitchen, doing a double-take as she caught sight of them as they climbed the stairs. “Whoa, what happened?”

Baymax lifted a finger. “We were-”

“-working all day!” Hiro interrupted, slapping a hand over Baymax’s face.

Aunt Cass raised her eyebrows, intrigued but still a little worried. It was clear that her nephews were barely standing. “Working on what?”

Tadashi and Hiro just kinda froze. Their brains were too tired and neither of them had been expecting the follow-up.

“Justice.”

The boys almost fell to the floor in shock. Tadashi looked over at Baymax sharply. “Who told you  _ that?” _

Baymax turned his head to look at him, blinking. “Fred.”

Hiro groaned. “Unbelievable.”

Aunt Cass just rested her head on her hand, still confused. “You were working on… justice?”

“Uh… yeah.” Tadashi started, racking his brain. “We, um…” He briefly considered telling his aunt the truth. “...were helping Fred with a project he had for school. He was making a superhero short film for one of his classes, and we agreed to help out.”

Hiro nodded vigorously. “We were running around and acting for him  _ all day _ .”

“Aw, that’s sweet of you, boys.” Aunt Cass smiled at them warmly, leaning further into her hand. “You should show me when it’s finished, I’d love to see it.”

Tadashi and Hiro nodded, smiling as honestly as they could.

Aunt Cass disappeared back into the kitchen. “Go wash up, dinner will be ready soon, okay?”

Finally dismissed, they walked to the next flight of stairs and began the trek to their room. Baymax was retired to his charging station and the boys collapsed in the nearest bed. Too tired to actually speak, they just laid there in silence, occasionally sending the other a quick thought when something occurred to them.

_ ‘That was close,’  _ Tadashi thought.

_ ‘No kidding. When did Fred have the time to fill Baymax’s head with comic books?’ _

_ ‘Who knows.’  _ Tadashi sighed, wrapping an arm around Hiro. Hiro was too tired to care, let alone fight back. _ ‘…I thought about telling her, you know.’ _

_ ‘What? Really?’ _

_ ‘Yeah. Baymax kinda gave us the perfect opportunity.’ _

_ ‘...So why didn’t you?’ _

_ ‘It’s not just  _ our _ secret anymore, Hiro. Our…  _ abilities _ are one thing. Telling her that we formed a superhero group with our friends? One that’s probably illegal in more than a few ways? And that we just came back from something that almost killed all of us more than once? Entirely different conversation.’ _

_ ‘She’d be worried sick. And then she’d kill us. We’d be grounded until we’re both 30. I mean, it’s better than bot fights, right?’ _

Tadashi snorted.  _ ‘That depends. In terms of sheer danger, I think this is worse. But in almost every other way? I think I’d prefer this to your other activities, personally.’ _

_ ‘You’re just saying that because you get to tag along.’ _

_ ‘Maybe.’ _

When they didn’t come down for dinner, Aunt Cass followed them up to see what the hold-up was. She found them both passed out on Hiro’s bed, dead to the world. She just smiled and grabbed a blanket from Tadashi’s bed to tuck them in. She let them be, remembering full well just how exhausting life at their ages could be.

And if she got a few pictures for her troubles, well… who’s to tell?


	11. High Hopes

“Come on, Hiro. You don’t want to be late!” Tadashi called from the bottom of the bedroom stairs.

“Coming, coming!” Hiro thundered down the steps, backpack in hand. He’d traded his normal jacket for an SFIT hoodie for the day, citing it as a special occasion.

It was the start of a new term. Hiro’s first day of Nerd School. With everything that had been going on, they’d almost forgotten.

Tadashi grinned at him. “Ready, little brother?”

“ _Born_ ready.” Hiro jumped up and swiped Tadashi’s cap from his head, stuffing it on his own and charging towards the Cafe.

“Hey!” Tadashi caught him at the bottom of the stairs, reclaiming his hat and attempting to create a lightning storm in Hiro’s hair. Hiro was still trying to calm it down as they walked through the door.

_“A massive cleanup continues today at the headquarters of Krei Tech Industries. Reports are_ still _flooding in about a group of unidentified individuals, who prevented what could have been a major catastrophe. The whole city of San Fransokyo is asking, ‘Who are these heroes? And where are they now?’”_

The brothers grinned up at the Cafe television. It’d been almost a week and a half since the ‘Krei Tech Incident’ and the ‘heroes’ in question had decided to lay low and rest on their laurels. The scrolling news reel at the bottom read: ‘WORLD RENOWNED ROBOTICIST DR. ROBERT CALLAGHAN IN CUSTODY FOR INVOLVEMENT IN KREI TECH INCIDENT.’

Wasabi spotted them first, rising from his chair. Honey Lemon, Fred, and Go Go were quick to follow. “Hey, little man. Ready for this?”

Hiro scoffed. “ _Please._ I was _born_ for this.”

“Definitely nervous,” Go Go said with a grin.

Honey Lemon cooed, “Oh, Hiro. You’re gonna do amazing!”

“You’re a secret _superhero_. This is nothing to worry about!” Fred said cheerfully. Tadashi bopped him on the back of the head.

“Try saying that louder, Fred. I don’t think the whole Cafe heard you,” he teased.

They started making their way out of the Cafe when Aunt Cass came up from behind them. “Hey, sweetie!” Cass handed a large paper bag to Hiro.

Tadashi gasped. “Aunt Cass, I’m _hurt_. You made Hiro a home lunch and not me?”

Hiro gave Tadashi a smug grin from inside Aunt Cass’ hug and she just laughed, pulling away to hug Tadashi. “There’s enough in there for you both,” she chided.

They pulled away and moved to leave before Hiro suddenly changed direction, almost tackling both his brother _and_ his aunt. “Last hug!” He let them go, running for the door cheerfully. “Bye!”

Tadashi gave Aunt Cass a last hug of his own before following suit.  
  
  
  


They all chattered happily as they walked together. While they’d all been great friends before, they were now something stronger. They were comrades now, bonds battle-tested in both metaphorical and physical fire. They were united by common cause and common secrets. And things were looking up.

Tadashi offered to share his lab with Hiro. They’d already been sharing anyway, Tadashi reasoned, so why not make it official? As a quiet little reminder of what they’d accomplished, They framed a few small pieces of Yokai’s mask and hung it on the wall. They were careful to choose pieces that weren’t easily identifiable, but _they_ knew.

Hiro had stopped wearing his microbot after their dip in the bay, not wanting to feel it thrash every time Callaghan decided to call on his stolen bots. Now that the transmitter was destroyed and Callaghan was taken care of, Hiro had started wearing it again. Tadashi and Hiro joked sarcastically about taking souvenirs from _every_ major superhero happening from then on out.  
  
  
  


Hiro fixed up their suits in his free time. While saving the day had been a one-time thing, it just didn’t feel right to him to leave them as they were. He _did_ make a few small changes to their visors though. He swapped out the glass with colored duplicates. Tadashi had mentioned that the clear glass didn’t do much for anonymity and Hiro agreed. He added a button that could make the glass opaque and one-way if necessary. No one could see in, but they could see out.

Wasabi and Go Go asked why he bothered since they weren’t planning on using them again. Hiro said that while they didn’t _plan_ on using them, that there may come a time when they were _needed._ Better be safe than sorry, Tadashi had agreed. Better to have them ready and not use them than to need them and not have them.

Suits or no suits, the Nerd Crew was looking towards the future with high hopes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Thanks for sticking with me until the end. I've already got a small lineup of related one-shots written and waiting in the wings, so I hope you'll stick with me a little longer! Comments, kudos, and advice are all welcomed, _especially_ the advice. Anything you have to say regarding my writing, my ideas, any of that jazz, I welcome it. Thanks again for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized I never put up my picture for what Tadashi's suit looked like! So here's my post-fic addition for anyone still around to see my dumb self get it together over here.

First off, all creds to the original artist!

<https://reb-chan.tumblr.com/post/109556013858/heres-some-things-that-were-floating-around-on-my>

Second off, here he is! My shining, silver boi.

...or at least, here he <em>would</em> be if I could figure out how to link my own pictures. Anyway, just replace all the orange/yellow with some shiny gray/silver and you've got the idea.


End file.
